Edited by Jonathan Sergison, Tom Avermaete & Giulia Scotto

The combined volumes Zurich Atlas: An Archaeology of Urban Codes and Forms and Zurich Primer: A Propositional Planning Vision for the City offer complementary and interrelated understandings of Zurich’s historic and future development.

Both books are centred around five shared themes, ‘Housing’, ‘Public Realm and Movement’, ‘Heritage’, ‘Public Buildings’, and ‘Employment’. Zurich Atlas comprises essays working with an abundance of archival material to reveal the historic reciprocating dynamics between regulatory, legal, and normative frameworks, and physical and social conditions – the processes that have ultimately informed the fabric of the city as found today. Zurich Primer builds on this foundation with further critical examination of the present-day city and its codes, proposing scenarios through which the city can accommodate expected population growth over the next two decades. This research is presented through essays, drawings, dialogues and photography.

This thematic research is further complemented in each book by an appendix, comprising guest papers contextualising the original research in the book. As a set, Zurich Atlas and Zurich Primer are a methodical account of a city defined by a fascinating and complex urban history, and offer tangible and realistic proposals to structure its future growth.

Zurich Atlas: An Archaeology of Urban Codes and Forms is edited by Tom Avermaete and Giulia Scotto, and includes articles by Tom Avermaete, Giulia Scotto, Tanguy Auffret Postel, André Bideau, Irina Davidovici, Melchior Fischli, Giulio Galasso, Sanna Kattenbeck, Stefan Kurath, Daniel Kurz, Kornel Lewicki, Henriette Lutz, Claudia Moll, Caspar Schärer and Natalia Voroshilova.

Zurich Primer: A Propositional Planning Vision for the City is edited by Jonathan Sergison and Giulia Scotto, and includes articles by Jonathan Sergison, Giulia Scotto, Tobias Quezado Deckker, Hannes Reichel, Miriam Stierle, Stefan Gasser, Patrick Gmür, Lindsay Blair Howe, Katrin Gügler, Beat Aeberhard, Manfred Kühne, Kristiaan Borret and Kath Scanlon.