Winterthur: HGW plans redevelopment of Grabenacker estate
The Grabenacker estate of terraced single-family houses owned by Heimstätten-Genossenschaft Winterthur (HGW) in Oberwinterthur is to be renovated and extended.
The HGW Grabenacker housing estate was built from 1945 onwards and is regarded as a pioneering work of urban architecture that was new at the time. The mostly two-story terraced single-family houses are embedded in the topography and have spacious private gardens. In 2018, the estate was included in the inventory of listed buildings of supra-municipal importance.
Now the existing buildings have to be renovated, and HGW also wants to expand the range of housing to include smaller apartments for singles or couples and to build new buildings for this purpose. In order to regulate development possibilities for replacement buildings and protective measures and the scope of protection of the existing buildings, a private design plan and a protective ordinance were drawn up. The planned demolition of individual buildings also requires that these parts of the settlement be released from the inventory.
The city council has now approved the design plan and is referring it to the municipal council. Approval by the cantonal construction directorate is expected in the first quarter of 2022. According to current planning, construction work is to start in 2023. (ah)
