Sursee

Urban development and transformation

Winning entry: 1. prize competition 2024

Project: Mixed-use housing
Location: Sursee, Lucerne, Switzerland
Team: Shadi Rahbaran, Ursula Hürzeler, Virginia Isora Grimaldi, Emilie-Louise Pöpl, Atsushi Onoe, Margherita De Angelis in collaboration with META Landscape Architecture
Rendering: Play-Time


The Isebahn quarter in Sursee is characterised by historic individual buildings from the 19th century and large new buildings from the more recent past. 
In the area under study, there are several identity-forming buildings that reflect the effects of the railway connection in 1856 to the present day. Together, the buildings form a dense conglomerate with interesting spatial sequences of alleyways and spatial pockets, which also repeatedly allow cross-views from the inner area to the neighbouring street spaces. 
The exciting urban spaces are to be preserved and further developed. The two elongated new buildings in the immediate vicinity of Wyhof and Fischer Weine create a new atelier lane that is commercially characterised on the first floor and at the same time forms differentiated living space on the upper floors. 
A 30-metre-high landmark building on the train station square sets an urban accent along the railway line and forms the gateway to the new development. As a counterpoint, a permeable building structure will be created in the east of the site, continuing the existing terraced buildings and flowing green spaces of the adjacent plots. A large garden courtyard is created here, loosely enclosed by three horizontal residential buildings. In keeping with the ideals of the garden city, the aim is to create ground-level living with a strong connection to the communal garden area.