Building upwards can greatly reduce housing shortage

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Housing shortage is a concern in Switzerland. The proposals for help, which will be discussed at a roundtable meeting with Bundestag Parmelin in Bern today, have been made in advance by both the tenants’ association and the property consulting firm Iazi.

Especially a suggestion from Iazi, a conversation topic. It’s about increments. Iazi’s proposal document identifies the potential for 30,000 new flats for Zurich alone if an additional floor is built on half of the residential buildings. With an average of three rooms, there will be additional living space for approximately 60,000 people without occupying one more square meter of construction area.

As “Tages-Anzeiger” explains, more than 67,000 new apartments could be built using this method in Switzerland’s five largest cities – with living space for about 135,000 people, according to Iazi.

Disputed feasibility

Can this suggestion actually be implemented? The Swiss Builders Association thinks so. Builders will have to increase the height of the building in the case of energy efficient renovations or replacement construction projects. To this end, authorities will also need to establish the legal framework to allow additional use of the property relatively easily.

The problem here is the constraints in the building code; for example, limiting the number of floors allowed without taking into account the city view. In addition, proprietary structures should not be increased. For other buildings, there may be structural engineering concerns.

In “Tages-Anzeiger”, architect Sibylle Wälti calculates that the city of Zurich has only about 8,500 additional apartments, which means space for 17,000 people. This would be only one-third of the potential reported by Iazi.

it has to go up

However, this will make a significant contribution to alleviating the housing shortage. Just: It’s not enough to just overturn official regulations and speed up building permits. Additions are complex: For owners, an addition is only really valuable if a few floors can be added. By the way, during the construction work, the tenants would have to move and claim living space elsewhere. Objections from both tenants and residents can also complicate increases.

The increases do not offer a quick fix to the housing shortage problem. In principle, however, it has been clear for decades that concentration will sooner or later force people to build upwards. The skyline of Manhattan’s New York neighborhood is primarily due to the fact that 1.7 million people live in an area of ​​60 square kilometers. In the Zurich suburb of Dübendorf, more and more apartments are currently being built in high-rise buildings.

Source :Blick