CHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE
AND URBAN DESIGN —
PROF. KEES CHRISTIAANSE

TEACHING

ELECTIVE COURSE FS14 SMALL ENTERPRISES AS DRIVERS FOR DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT

CASE STUDIES IN URBAN DESIGN: SMALL ENTERPRISES AS DRIVERS FOR DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT

Small urban enterprises shape the city morphology and development throught their multiplicity of activities and forms of appearances. These varieties often don’t fit comfortably into standardised definitions and categorisations, which inform planning policies and urban development in regards to a better integration of small businesses in urban culture. We will investigate the typologies, the reciprocal relationship between the urban and the enterprise by means of 5 case studies in peripheral areas oft he City of Zurich.

The aim is to develop a typology catalog, which captures the dynamic as well as static processes of spatial transformations related to urban entrepreuneurship. The typologies from the case studies, eg. Gewerbehaus, SME park, urban entrepreneurial single unit, urban block are being portrayed through different aspects. These aspects reflect level of neighbourhood integration, entrepreneurial and typological development and transformation over the years, active and passive agents, interaction between entrepreneurial activity and the built environment, spatial needs of entrepreneurs. 

Meaningfull description methods from architecture and urban design should inform through this catalogue instruments and strategies for the sustainable development of urban neighbourhoods.

Contact Tessina Schenk