A new centre comprising shops, leisure amenities and offices has been built on the site of a paper mill in the south of Zurich: Sihlcity. Basler & Hofmann was involved in many aspects of the construction work on the “little big city”: from remediation concepts, providing structural engineering services to site infrastructure as well as transport planning.

Everything a city needs

Building a new town involves a very large number of engineering services. This is also the case with a small town, which is how Sihlcity can be described, thanks to its 90 shops, a hotel, offices, cinemas and apartments. Basler & Hofmann produced remediation concepts and supervised ground engineering and structural engineering work. The company was responsible for environmental planning, designing the site infrastructure with roads, utility pipes, engineering structures and flood protection. It also carried out surveys and managed the construction work. A small town also relies on well coordinated solutions.

A sustainable concept for mobility

Basler & Hofmann was also responsible for traffic planning. The city and investors imposed strict environmental requirements: a maximum of 8,800 car journeys a day and a car park accommodating no more than 850 vehicles. Planning therefore focussed on providing excellent public transport. Sihlcity now attracts about 20,000 visitors a day – 70 per cent of these visitors use public transport or come on foot or by bike, which proves that the company’s traffic plan has been successful.

Clients:

Credit Suisse, Swiss Prime Site AG