Living on campus

A glance into the courtyard of the new HWO building. (Photograph: ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella).

(Press release ETH Zurich:) Zurich, Switzerland, 13 July 2016 - As well as being a site of research and teaching, ETH’s Hönggerberg campus is also set to become a place to live. When the semester gets underway in September, some 900 students will move into their new homes right next to lecture halls and laboratories.

Cheap housing is a rarity in the city of Zurich, and the search for an affordable room in a shared house is a real issue for many students. ETH Zurich has therefore decided to create additional housing for students on the ETH Hönggerberg campus. The Luzerner Pensionskasse (Lucerne Pension Fund) and Swiss Life were granted a leasehold to build two new buildings, HWW and HWO, in the south-west part of the campus. From September, the new buildings will be home to around 900 students. And, so that the new campus offers not only housing but also a home, the residential properties will also feature numerous common rooms, as well as retail premises that can be rented out to businesses.

Lots of space to socialise

Built by the Luzerner Pensionskasse, the HWW residential property consists of one six-storey and one seven-storey residence with 404 student rooms and 23 ateliers, which are intended for commercial use. So far, tenants include a hairdressing salon, a restaurant, an architect/film producer and an artist. The student rooms comprise both individual studios and studios and two- and six-room shared apartments, in which each room is equipped with a private bathroom. Common rooms and open spaces on each floor provide ample space for residents to come together. The rooms are very popular among students – all of the residential units have already been rented out. The property is certified with the Minergie P-Eco label.

Immediately next door stand the three visually interconnected HWO buildings developed by Swiss Life. Here, 498 housing units are divided between shared flats and individual studios. A landscaped courtyard and a variety of common rooms provide a high quality of life and space for students to get together. The ground floor is home to student workspaces and a crèche for ETH Zurich, which also plans to establish its Archives of the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta Archives) in the building’s basement. The residential units in HWO also met with high demand and have now all been rented out.

Opportunities for students and ETH alike

‘ETH Zurich wants to create the best possible conditions for students in order to support learning – and these two buildings are perfect for that thanks to their infrastructure and proximity to lecture halls and labs’, says ETH Rector Sarah Springman. However, the campus’s residential buildings not only represent a welcome support for students, but also provide the university with an opportunity to bring life to the campus. In addition, ETH benefits from a new location to house its Association of Students (VSETH), Academic Association of Scientific Staff (AVETH), Language Center, another crèche, and many new workspaces for students.

A short-distance lifestyle

With the new building projects, ETH Zurich continues its strategy of expanding at Hönggerberg rather than in the city centre. For Ulrich Weidmann, Vice President for Human Resources and Infrastructure at ETH Zurich, the construction of these residences also sends an important signal to the city of Zurich: ‘ETH Zurich wants to help facilitate a short-distance lifestyle. This will help the university conserve resources and avoid placing an additional burden on the city’s public transport services’, he says.