ZumikonLandsehnsucht: Zurich's Very Own VillageManuela Foscaldi and Carla Ringenbach

Zumikon was never really a village, while it is a place of paradoxes. Thanks to its proximity to Zurich, it became the projection of Landsehnsucht. Early in history, Zumikon was a popular recreation area for the citizens of Zurich. With the construction of the Forchbahn, the first rich citizens of Zurich came to build their villas with mountain views in Zumikon. Later in the 1950s, an academic urban elite came, who was looking for life in the countryside but not in the village. Over the years, the idea of Landsehnsucht changed and with it the typology of the buildings. What remains is a large number of single-family houses and the desire to be finally a village.

Single-family houses are built for families, but what happens when the children move out and one wants to remain in its familiar home with the nice big garden? This is the situation for many people in Zumikon. There is an ageing population of high earners, while the middle class can no longer afford the high land prices. This leads to the paradoxical situation that in a lot of single-family houses older people live alone. It is the paradox of the single-family house model.

What does it mean to become a village? Which ideas would be needed to be implemented? Is the answer to build more according the image one has of a village with a lot of single-family houses and a big garden? We question whether there is a need in the first place to build more houses in Zumikon or if there are already enough single-family houses. A lot of these houses are only inhabited by pensioners and not fully occupied as they could be. The solution should rather be searched in the social concept of a village by implementing it in a new housing model of intergeneration living. This could be an opportunity to enable people that don´t earn 161,000 francs to live in Zumikon.