Heimplatz Zurich

Heimplatz is the address of important cultural institutions (the theater, the art museum). It is one of the most visited squares in the city and is considered a place of international significance. With the new extension of the art museum, the square will not only be spatially enclosed on all sides but will also gain a geometrically clear and simple form. This makes the first art museum extension (Moser Building) an integral part of the square, and the previous leftover areas (e.g., the triangular forecourt of the old art museum) become a full-fledged part of the new city square. An urban, representative city square is created.

At the same time, the square is dominated by traffic. With various new demands (separating traffic flows, additional bicycle infrastructure, increased safety requirements, wider vehicles), even larger areas are claimed, which minimizes pedestrian and public space. This contradicts the spatial importance of the square and its high and concentrated pedestrian traffic.

Therefore, the design proposes a paradigm shift in the treatment of traffic in the urban space: pedestrian traffic and traffic-free zones (areas for walking and lingering) are given priority. The basic idea of the design is to minimize traffic areas within the square through sophisticated traffic management, compact mixed-traffic solutions, speed reduction (30 km/h zones), and relocating supplementary traffic functions (e.g., taxi stands) to the immediate surroundings of the square. The capacity and functionality of connections and junctions remain intact, but the required traffic area is reduced by more than half compared to conventional traffic solutions.

Median islands form the basis of a stepping-stone concept that optimizes pedestrian crossing of the street sections within the square. This enables the creation of a generous, tree-lined central plaza as a meeting and gathering place for the neighborhood. The forecourts of the individual cultural buildings are also very spacious—between 10 and 20 meters wide—allowing the representation of the buildings to be combined with tree planting. Thus, the forecourts become places for lingering and attractive meeting points for visitor groups, contributing to a climate-friendly city.