Winterthur and wooden "jewelry boxes"

Winterthur is better known to everyone as the city of museums, located near Zurich. However, the subject of my photo investigation in 2017 was not them at all, but interesting residential complexes of this small town and landscaping around them. But not to see any museums at all on this trip would be a shame, so the first stop was the new building of the Winterthur Art Museum.

The new building can only be accessed from the old one, parking is located on the ground floor. Simplicity and conciseness can be read in everything here – both in the form and in the translucent facade material. Sculptures placed around the perimeter look especially advantageous against its background. You can read more about the construction here.

During the whole trip, bad weather and leaden clouds in the sky were my integral companions, and only in one photo with a sculpture by Richard Deacon I managed to capture a short-term sun.

Winterthur was one of the centers of the Swiss railway industry, in particular it gained international fame thanks to its industrial enterprises such as Sulzer. The company left the Lagerplatz factory site back in the 1980s, now it is the main entertainment venue of the city, where you can find almost anything: a skatepark, a food court, a bunch of shops, a hostel, a restaurant in trailers and much more.

And finally, we reached the part where my favorite wooden "jewelry boxes" begin - these are low-rise apartment complexes made of wood. The first in line is Eulachhof residential complex, built by Dietrich Schwartz's studio in 2007, was awarded many prizes as the first house in Switzerland with zero energy consumption. Glazing here occupies 60% of the facade area, but inside you always have a comfortable temperature thanks to triple-glazed windows (which retain heat in winter) and a special glass composition (which protects against overheating in summer).

This bright residential complex is notable not only for its color – it is the largest completely (!) wooden house in Switzerland. The Giesserei residential complex consists of two five-storey elongated buildings with 155 apartments and commercial premises. The architects in the project paid special attention to the arrangement and design of the courtyard, which should facilitate communication between residents. Hence the very name of the residential building, "giesserei" in German means "foundry".

Walking along Giesserei, you can stumble upon the courtyard of a neighboring apartment building, which is already strikingly different in its size, landscape, and color palette from the previous ones.