Cafe-Bar-Kiosk-Rosengarten — Informal Retirement Care And Its Space

In Small Talk, the director explores her relationship with her mother, A-nu, who rejects traditional motherhood, spending time with friends outside the domestic realm. For those like A-nu, who seek independence beyond kinship or institutional care, informal networks become essential—small urban spaces for gathering, connection, and aging in place without loneliness.

In Zurich, independently-run Kiosk-Cafés embody these qualities. Without judgment, they serve as crossroads for people of all ages and backgrounds, fulfilling the need for community. Examining Café-Bar-Kiosk-Röschibach near our site, we find its strength lies in its adaptability—aging in place rather than striving for newness.

At Rosengartenstrasse—one of the last green plots, encircled by Zurich’s busiest road—we embrace contrast. Infrastructure becomes architecture. Spaces emerge from what exists. The street wall extends into the kiosk façade, integrating with the urban fabric.

By continuing and developing the site’s materials—light blue and white ceramic tiles, rough concrete walls, rounded edges, ramps, steps—we create continuity, valuing what is already there.

The sidewalk extends in one gesture, forming the plinth of the narrow building and overcoming the two-meter height difference. Facing the street, it remains infrastructural; toward the park—left untouched—it softens into rough plaster. The spaces align in sequence, with the ramp connecting them. Entered from the outside and linked by small openings within, each room creates its own pocket — a feeling of sitting within the wall itself.

A place where the path of the commuter and regular crosses. Where roughness, movement, noise, come together with moments of resting, sitting, spending time. With indulging in the pleasures of everyday life, of talking, drinking, gambling, smoking a cigarette, and perhaps meeting a new friend, an old friend, a partner, a helping hand.

Project by: Gaia Banfi, Livia Hefti, Simona Mele, NoraZeller

Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Dafni Retzepi, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Lisa Maillard, Luis Úrculo, Pol Esteve Castelló, He Shen

Design Studio: Autumn 2024