In Defense of the Wrinkled, the Chapped and the Rough Imagining Housing Futures beyond Erasure

Zurich’s urban densification strategy, intended as a solution but dominated by systemic demolition and replacement, contributes to an accelerating housing crisis, socio-economic exclusion and environmental harm. Building on the Theoretical Statement Erased by Design, which examined the underlying entangled forces of policy, ownership, housing commodification, social fabric and rhetorical obsolescence in the imminent demolition of homes along Baslerstrasse, this project calls for a necessary radical shift: halting demolition while revaluing and prolonging the existing. The project unfolds across three levels. First, a catalog archives the settlement’s qualities and material and immaterial values, challenging narratives of obsolescence and devaluation. Second, through a legislative imagination, the project reimagines local planning tools to disrupt the speculative logic of demolition-led densification and promote a more equitable transformation of the city by discouraging developers from demolishing. Third, and based on this altered premise, it proposes spatial intervention strategies to keep and prolong the homes – and its inhabitants, through less extractive, low-carbon approaches. While this imaginary alternative does not claim to resolve the structural crisis of commodified housing, it insists on the value of what already exists – making a tangible case for futures built through renovation, continuation and care, hoping to contribute to the broader struggle for housing justice.