Authors: Paula Görler, Aleksandra Maria Rolek, Lena Meyer, Julia Schade
From Uetliberg to the pass between Käferberg and Zürichberg, our Section sees the ground of the city as both physical foundation and political question. In Kreis 3, land prices have risen dramatically, reflecting a broader condition: soil has become a commodity. Treated as a financial asset, it must generate profit. Development pressure increases, demolition becomes attractive, and ecological value is pushed aside. What should sustain life is reduced to speculation. Our project challenges these ownership structures. Instead of accepting soil as private property, we understand it as a common resource. By introducing urban Allmenden, a third space collectively used and cared-for, we aim to reframe the ground as shared foundation of life. The concept of each Allmende combines a curated landscape that provides a common good with designed infrastructure - huts, wells and compost, stages and markets - that enable a common care and democratic practices. In residential areas, clay-rich soils become diverse landscapes that store carbon and extend living space outdoors. In dense former industrial zones, sandy soils and groundwater are transformed into a landscape that enables self-directed practices such as political activism within a cooling environment designed to mitigate increasing heat stress.
Supported by phases of awareness, redistribution, and monitoring rooted in a law, the project proposes changes to challenge the legal order of ownership through practices of care and anchor soil protection in urban governance. Step by step, a network of Allmenden emerges strengthening existing structures, reactivating voids, and reconnecting citizens with the ground they inhabit. Soil belongs to everyone. Soil wird das was allen gehört.