Office-to-Residential Conversion

Zurich-Unterstrass, since 2026

The conversion of office to housing is as relevant as it is typical: the housing shortage in many places, coupled with changes in the way we work, are making unused office spaces an increasingly important resource for achieving our energy targets. Furthermore, our cityscapes are richer where the history of repurposed buildings remains palpable, and these places are more readily appropriated and treated with greater care. Despite all this, best practice examples for office to housing conversions are largely lacking – and where they do exist, they are usually located in peripheral areas that are unsuitable for residential use, rather than, as here, in an attractive, inner-city residential context. 

Whilst office buildings have few central entrances – for the sake of prestige and security – residential buildings have many decentralised stairwells. In an office block, one feels a sense of belonging to the company based there; in a residential building, however, one feels a sense of belonging to the neighbourhood with which one shares the stairwell. That is why the loose network of paths in the open space of the former office complex is supplemented by a dense network of paths for the new residential use and better connected to the neighbourhood. The site is newly entered through the invitingly wide Waltersbach Passage leading into the entrance courtyard and from there to the stairwells of the central wing. In the garden courtyard with its large trees, the paths are laid out in a curved and playful manner, before gradually ascending and opening out into Beckenhof Park.