Urban development Zurich City Council tightens quality requirements for high-rise buildings

The Zurich City Council has updated the guidelines for the construction of high-rise buildings: In particular, it wants to tighten the quality requirements and slightly reduce the area for 80-metre-high buildings.

Overall, the area in which high-rise buildings are permitted remains the same compared to the existing guidelines from 2001, Katrin Gügler, Director of the Office for Urban Development, told the media on Wednesday. However, shifts have been made within the various zones and they have been tightened up.

For example, the city council significantly reduced the area with high-rise buildings up to 80 meters - in favour of a newly introduced 60-meter zone. It also excluded certain sensitive areas on slopes or in neighborhood conservation zones from the high-rise area.

Instead, he extended it to include residential areas such as Schwamendingen, Seebach and Albisrieden. Buildings up to 40 meters high should be possible there. Gügler explained that this would allow "more leeway for the arrangement of buildings and green spaces" in these changing districts.

Public first floor, open space to linger

The new high-rise building guidelines are a response to challenges in the areas of ecology, open space and society, stated André Odermatt (SP), Head of Building. Today, high-rise buildings have to do more for the city than in the past. The principle applies that the higher a building is, the stricter the requirements.

Requirements are set for open space and greenery, use, urban climate, resource efficiency and social space, added Gügler. For example, the first floors of high-rise buildings should have communal, commercial or public-oriented uses in order to revitalize the district. The outdoor areas should invite people to linger. For buildings over 60 meters, an accessible top floor is an issue, depending on the location.

To make these requirements binding for developers, they are to be enshrined in the form of special building regulations in Zurich's building and zoning regulations (BZO). The municipal council will still have to debate and decide on the guidelines requested by the city council and the partial revision of the BZO. This is likely to take up to a year.

"High-rise buildings remain a special case"

In the areas defined as high-rise zones, tall buildings are possible, but there is no entitlement to build a high-rise building there, Gügler noted. "The high-rise building remains a special case."

This is also shown by the figures: There are around 50,000 buildings in the city of Zurich, 300 of which are taller than 25 meters and are therefore considered high-rises, with 60 percent of them being lower than 40 meters.

The current high-rise guidelines date back to 2001. The updated guidelines were in the public consultation phase from December 2022 to February 2023. The city council then revised them; for example, it slightly reduced the size of the new high-rise area in the residential districts due to objections received.