Hardhaus

Hardhaus is located on the Hardturm site, a place shaped by passion, sports, and football. For almost one hundred years, it was home to the Grasshopper Club and an important place of gathering within the city. When the stadium was demolished in 2008, it was the longest-standing building on the site. Today, Hardturm still carries strong memories and emotional value for football fans and the citizens of Zurich.

The project works closely with this history and with the planning of the new stadium, the Credit Suisse Arena of the Ensemble Project. Rather than opposing it, Hardhaus proposes a different condition next to the stadium. While the stadium is defined by strict rules, standards, safety measures, and moments of spectacle, existing between emptiness and fullness, Hardhaus focuses on everyday life.

It places activity and the movement of aging bodies at its center, understanding movement as a wide notion, since bodies are always changing, as are the ways we want and are able to move. Perceptions shift, but movement remains essential to taking care of ourselves, a way of being aware of the body and feeling powerful.

The building is structured around three notions: practicing, resting, and viewing. These are overlapping conditions rather than fixed programs. Practicing spaces are oriented towards the south and distributed throughout the building, ranging from formal rooms to open and adaptable spaces. Enclosed spaces frame open ones, allowing different forms of movement to coexist. The focus lies on agency rather than competition.

Resting is an essential part of movement. Living spaces are oriented towards the north and connected to practicing spaces through bridges across patios. Private rooms are extended by small terraces that act as buffers for light, climate, and retreat. Viewing spaces create collective moments through a café, sports bar on the ground floor, and a rooftop tribune. These notions constantly overlap. The table you eat breakfast at can become your ping pong table. Your kitchen can become a field. Your rooftop, your stadium.

On the rooftop a large open movement space is created as an accessible alternative to the stadium. Its dimensions are defined by the remaining stadium wall found on site, a relic of Hardturm’s football era. Stripped of its original context, it is no longer perceived as a façade, but as an isolated fragment carrying memory and identity.

The living in Hardhaus is organized collectively through cluster apartments, shared entrances, kitchens, and patios. The project brings living and movement closer together, offering a home to stay active, to meet others, and to see aging as a time to share experience and joy.

Project by: Carolina Palos Mas

Teaching team: Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Dafni Retzepi, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Pol Esteve Castelló, Lisa Maillard, He Shen, He Yufei. In collaboration with BUK.

Master Thesis: Autumn 2025

Images: Luís Úrculo