Linda Sjøqvist

Two neighbouring houses in a residential street just a stone’s throw away from the MFO-site (Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon) look like blasts from the past in an area where Ersatzneubauten are already firmly taking over. They look like twins: echoing each other’s careful, almost introverted adaptations over the last decades: an extra skylight, a new porch, an extended front yard. Both private homeowners confirm that they actively align the outlook of their houses. Both also make space in their homes for other tenants, installing a culture of collective care and shared maintenance. How to maintain the quality of this collective care and agency through maintenance when developing new housing on the massive industrial scale of the MFO-site? This master thesis proposes a housing development that highlights and acts upon the existing structure of a former industrial hall at MFO. The design uses the scale of the terraced house with a «Vorraum» as an alternative collective garden. Flexible floorplans and double heighted spaces can be adapted, allowing for different kinds of households to move in.