The new UZH building by Herzog & de Meuron will cost 600 million francs
The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (D) cost 885 million francs, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, almost twice as much: 1.5 billion. After all, it is 600 million for the “Forum UZH”, the planned education and research center of the university right in the heart of Switzerland’s largest city. The monumental building with 37,000 square meters of floor space is intended to be the home for economics, law and linguistics and creates space for 6,500 students and 1,100 employees.
Digitization and the universities are progressing
During the pandemic, Swiss universities were largely forced to conduct their courses online, which over time they managed to do reasonably well. When asked, the University of Zurich states that it intends to stick to digital learning formats that have proven their worth during the Corona period. The keyword is blended learning, a mixture of face-to-face events and online elements.
Only: Why is a gigantic new building needed when some of the students WILL continue to attend the lectures in front of the screen in the future?
Face-to-face teaching is not obsolete
The University of Zurich emphasizes that it continues to see itself as a face-to-face university. The “Forum UZH” will make a certain contribution to making campus life more differentiated and diverse through new learning formats.
The other Swiss universities also expect a stronger increase in the number of students and want to counteract this with new buildings instead of digitization. But do you really have to pay 600 million for that?
The debate about whether face-to-face teaching is the right approach for the future has only just begun. At the new building at the corner of Rämistrasse and Gloriastrasse in Zurich, she finds at least one impressive focal point.