Cooperative Impressions: Cooperatives in Kreis 2 – Enge

Cooperatives are architecturally very diverse: Some buildings, with over 100 years behind them, can look back on a lot of history; others are cutting-edge and so new they almost still smell of fresh paint. In this series, we explore the buildings of the cooperatives in the city of Zürich and showcase their variety. Sometimes on foot, sometimes by bike, and always with a phone camera.

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PWG

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Today we’re heading to Kreis 2, specifically to Enge, where we’ll visit the cooperatives while jogging. We start at the ‘Waffenplatzstrasse’ bus stop and jog along the street of the same name. Before long, we head left up Schulhausstrasse. Pretty tough—a hill like that right at the start. But it’s worth it: just about at the highest point, a villa of the PWG sits on the right. It houses five apartments, and the garden looks inviting too. What a dream home!

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Sunnige Hof and Baugenossenschaft Zürich 2 (BGZ2)

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With a touch of envy in our hearts, we turn around, jog back down Schulhausstrasse and continue to Rieterstrasse. Very soon we come across the yellow apartment building of the Genossenschaft Sunnige Hof. Looks friendly! Are all their buildings, true to the name, painted yellow? Well, we’ll find out in the coming weeks. We continue along Rieterstrasse to number 95—this building belongs to the Baugenossenschaft Zürich 2 (BGZ 2). We’re especially taken with the blue-and-white striped awnings.

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PWG and Mieter-Baugenossenschaft Zürich (MBGZ)

We’ve been jogging for a few minutes now, and we’re actually a bit hungry. So it’s very convenient that the next stop also includes a bakery! It’s a building of the PWG and is located at Brunaustrasse 61. We’d love to stay for a coffee—the inside looks cozy—but duty calls. We jog a little further towards Wollishofen, then soon turn back. Enge is indeed very compact. To finish, we throw in a short sprint—to the light-blue buildings of the Mieter-Baugenossenschaft Zürich (MBGZ).

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We almost overlooked the pink blossoms on a shrub. Spring is approaching—and with it the SoLa race. Our next piece surely won’t be long in coming.

We hope you enjoyed our foray to the cooperatives in Enge. Until next time!

PS. Please understand that we can never visit all cooperatives in a single Kreis. We make a varied preselection based on the cooperatives’ websites. In Enge (Kreis 2), we visited buildings of PWG, the Sunnige Hof cooperative, the Baugenossenschaft Zürich 2 and the Mieter-Baugenossenschaft Zürich. If you think important cooperatives are missing, just send us an email and we’ll be happy to take another look around!