Oberstetten, Uzwil
2024-
Noah Curinga
Emily Schlatter
und Jurek Brüggen
Oberstetten is a small historic settlement in the west of the municipality of Uzwil. The village bus stop in Oberstetten is to be redesigned and a bus shelter with a forecourt is to be built on the site of the bus stop.
These buildings can still be found in many villages today. In the past, they were necessary to extinguish fires in the village. They were part of the original basic infrastructure of the wooden hamlets. As fires are now fought with fire engines, they have lost their function and are empty in many places.
The DORF project is a proposal to repurpose and reinterpret these fire stations. An existing but outdated infrastructure is to be transformed into a contemporary infrastructure that strengthens the rural area. Through new functions and structural adaptations, the spritzenhäuser, which were once very important for the villages, can regain their lost urban significance.
With little intervention in the existing buildings, the quality of life and amenity for residents in many villages could be improved. The small scale and fragmented nature of the individual measures lend themselves to an unconventional approach and a sustainable model project. By utilising existing structures, existing urban structures and typologies would be taken up, further developed and reinterpreted. Resource consumption, use of materials and the ecological footprint would be minimised as much as possible by activating the existing structures.
The existing building stands in a prominent urban location for the village of Oberstetten. Due to the lack of room height and the location, which is difficult for bus drivers to see from the road, it is less suitable as a bus shelter in its current form and position. The building would have to be raised for public use. If it were to be used as a bus shelter, a new building would have to be erected in a location that is more visible from the fire station or the existing building would have to be moved.
Due to their construction, half-timbered houses can be relocated or moved relatively easily. This has been practised in many different places in the past to this day. Existing buildings can be raised, for example to increase the room height and make them usable, or completely relocated, for example if they are no longer used at their current location. Little or no new material is required, which saves resources and grey energy. Relocation is also more cost-effective than a new build if a suitable building that is no longer in use is available in the immediate vicinity.