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The buildings of Zurich housing cooperatives boast a range of architectural styles: Some houses are over 100 years old and ooze history while others are brand new with paint that has barely dried. In this series of blog posts, we share impressions of the very diverse range of cooperative buildings in Zürich. We explore the different districts by different means – sometimes on foot, sometimes by bike and always with our phone camera.
Today we are in district 2, more precisely in the “Enge” area and we are going for a run. We set off from the bus stop Waffenplatzstrasse and run along the street with the same name. Soon we turn left and up Schulhausstrasse. Quite a tough hill for the start of a run. But it’s worth it: Near the very top we discover a PWG villa. It houses five apartments and is surrounded by a lovely garden. Wow. What a fantastic place to live this must be!
Feeling a tad envious we turn around, run back down Schulhausstrasse and soon turn left into Rieterstrasse. Soon enough we encounter a bright yellow building owned by the cooperative Sunnige Hof. This means ‘sunny yard’ and we cannot help but wonder if all their buildings’ colours match their name. Well, we will find out. We continue along Rieterstrasse until number 95 – this building is owned by Baugenossenschaft Zürich 2 (BGZ 2). The blue and white blinds are quite cute.
We’ve been running for a while now and have started feeling a bit peckish. Conveniently, the next cooperative building on the list houses a bakery. It’s called Café Brunegg and is located at Brunaustrasse 61. We’d stay for a coffee at this cozy little eatery but work is calling. After a few more strides towards Wollishofen we turn around and decide to sprint until the final cooperative of the day: The light blue Mieter-Baugenossenschaft Zürich (MBGZ) on Waffenplatzstrasse.
We nearly miss the dainty pink spring flowers on the street corner. The warm season is coming – and also the SoLa race. It won’t be long until our next exploratory run for sure.
We hope you enjoyed this brief Enge excursion. See you next time!
PS. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible for us to visit every single cooperative in every district of Zurich. Before we set off, we select a few based on the Websites of the cooperatives. In the Enge area we went to see buildings owned by PWG, Sunnige Hof, Baugenossenschaft Zürich 2 and Mieter-Baugenossenschaft Zürich. If you feel like additional ones should be featured, do drop us a line and we’ll happily go back and have a look!