Places in Transition: Imagining spatial and sonic futures for Zürich
Curators: Philipp Urech, Matthias Vollmer, Nadine Schütz
On view: 20 November 2025 to 24 January 2026
Venue: Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich (BAZ), Neumarkt 4
Places in Transition is an exhibition about how cities change slowly, unevenly, and often unexpectedly. It looks at Zürich as a living organism in motion, shaped by the echoes of its past and the sounds of possible futures.
The exhibition investigates urban transformation in Zürich across historical, contemporary, and speculative dimensions: from the defensive moats and ramparts of the Middle Ages to the streets that replaced them; from the railways that sliced through neighborhoods but become now spaces of urban reconquest, to the rivers and streams that once disappeared underground and are now being brought back to light. These shifting landscapes tell stories of adaptation and renewal—of how Zürich’s spaces, infrastructures, and atmospheres evolve with each generation.
Today, as all cities face rising temperatures, loss of biodiversity, and new forms of urban density, Zurich is looking for ways to become more resilient and alive. Sound becomes a tool for imagination: How might the city feel, move, and resonate in the future?
The exhibition brings together archival treasures from the Baugeschichtliches Archiv Zürich (BAZ), contemporary geospatial data from Geomatik und Vermessung Zürich (GeoZ), and speculative audiovisual works created by students from ETH Zürich’s Departments of Architecture (D-ARCH) and Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG). Through films, visual collages, and sound compositions, the students explore urban sites in transition: the covered Seebahngraben in Zürich-Aussersihl, the community-claimed Hardturmplatz, the re-emergence of the Wolfbach stream in Hottingen, a neighborhood street in Sihlfeld imagined under a subtropical climate, and the changing soundscape around the main station. Their works move between neighborhood intimacy and city-scale strategy, between the hum of daily life and the sonic horizons of a changing climate.
| Main Event |
| Vernissage Exhibition Thursday 20 November 2025, 18:00-20:00 Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich (BAZ), Neumarkt 4 In dialogue with Prof. Sascha Roesler and Dr. Sabine von Fischer |
| Additional Events |
| Dialogue “2070: Imagining Subtropical Zürich” at the exhibition “After The Deluge” by Michael Schindhelm Wednesday 15 October 2025, 16:00 Franck-Areal, Kreislaufhaus, Basel — Guided Tour of the Exhibition Wed. 3 December 2025, 17:00 Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich (BAZ), Neumarkt 4 |
Acknowledgments
The presented work was developed within the seminar series Topology (Dr. Matthias Vollmer, Dr. Philipp Urech) and Landscape Acoustics (Dr. Nadine Schütz) at the Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling Lab (LVML) of ETH Zürich. The exhibition integrates two ongoing research projects on urban transformation, Co-creative Cohabitation Network (CoCoNet) and QUALISCAPES (NRP81), and is supported by Design++, the Baugeschichtliches Archiv Zürich (BAZ), and SNSF Agorà.
Contributors
Fabian Gutscher (Teaching Collaborator), Arta Koka (Assistance)
Rosa Ammann, Maena Asticher, Brikena Avdiu, Luana Bearth, Lewis Beauchamp, Stan Bezençon, Gaibul Bhullar, Filippo Biasca-Caroni, Matteo Baggenstos, Paul Ban, Raphael Baumann, Noëlle Baechler, Adrien Bressan, Chiara Bosshard, Elias Böhnlein, Matteo Cadei, Helin Can, Yuzhe Che, Bertha Chen, Wen Tsung Chen, Rifa Chowdhury, Fanny Christinaz, Francisco Coch, Pénélope Croset, Annabell Daverhuth, Florian Dervishaj, Ilu Demont, Mariah Derkach, Omar El Sayed, Nikola Endres, Idoya Ferro Carrión, Fei Li, Fiona Wagner, Flore Schärrer, Fabio Tehlar, Giacomo Rossi, Roderic Günter, Zoe Gyr, Nils Hayoz, Severin Hitz, Ludwig Henke, Yida Hou, Hoi Ming Du, Hoi Yan Young, Philippe Jenny, Sofie Klaus, Anna Kotasz, Arta Koka, Jim Koenig, Adrian Kramser, Olivier Knecht, Lara Krieger, Aikaterini Katsarou, Katerina Katsarou, Vinzenz Leuppi, Luca Lepori, Fei Li, Inesa Margarayan, Jann Märki, Simona Mele, Viral Mehta, Loris Müller, Lauro Nächt, Marin Nussbaumer, Antonina Nikolic, Léo Ornstein, Nathan Loretan, Emanuel Pulfer, Josias Regli, Andreas Regli, Léna Reesink, Tanja Reichmuth, Colin Wiebking, Philippe Wegmann, Moritz Wick, Kyan Tami, Pin-hsien Tang, Mert Ünal, Aline Vonderwahl, Shurui Wang, Yuxuan Shi, Shuyuan Zhang, Aaron Zilinski, Annina Schoop, Nadia Schib, Ann Sophia Kirchhofer, Elena Geser, Lisa Gärtner, Ellen Stenzel, Kaspar Stengele, Raffaele Squillacioti, Timm Rogenmoser, Anna Rothstein, Adrien Bressan, Bo Yang, Hoi Yan Young, Yuzhe Che, Raphael Baumann, Stan Bezençon, Marin Nussbaumer, Maena Asticher, Arta Koka, Philippe Jenny, Paul Ban, Moritz Wick, Philippe Wegmann, Nils Hayoz, Nathan Loretan, Nikola Endres, Léna Reesink, Lewis Beauchamp, Kyan Tami, Kaspar Stengele, Katerina Katsarou, Jim Koenig, Inesa Margarayan, Giacomo Rossi, Florian Dervishaj, Fiona Wagner, Fei Li, Fanny Christinaz, Elias Böhnlein, Eric Gozzi, Emanuel Pulfer, Elena Geser, Chiara Bosshard, Bertha Chen, Annina Schoop, Annabell Daverhuth, Ann Sophia Kirchhofer, Aline Vonderwahl