Courtyard Housing Feldbreite

Zurich’s brief was uncompromising: ninety-four apartments, all subsidised, none smaller than code. Feldbreite answers with perimeter blocks of load-bearing masonry enclosing a single generous courtyard — every apartment gets two orientations, most get three.

The courtyard is infrastructure, not decoration. Shared laundries, workshops and a kindergarten open onto it; fruit trees and rain gardens carry the stormwater. Cars stop at the street. Children claim the space within weeks of opening, which is the only occupancy certificate that matters.

Construction stayed conventional on purpose: masonry, slabs, windows — details refined until ordinary methods produced extraordinary calm. The project demonstrates that affordability and architectural ambition are not opposites but neighbours.