Ideas competition: from a couch to a stage

How can the campus be livened up even further so that students and staff at ETH Zurich are encouraged to mix? How can the sorting and disposal of waste from laboratories, offices and canteens be improved? And what more can ETH Zurich do to help pedestrians and cyclists on its campus?

The three topics of mobility, waste and meeting-places provided the thematic focus for the ideas competition launched by the Office for Events and Location Development, together with the Safety, Security, Health and Environment (SSHE) staff unit and the ETH Sustainability coordination office in October 2013.

"In our efforts to enliven the campus on a sustainable basis, we wanted to gather ideas directly from ETH students and staff," said David Müller, Head of Events and Campus Development at ETH Zurich, at the award ceremony held in the HIL building on Monday.

Furniture that transforms spaces into favourite places

Students and staff submitted a total of 13 ideas for the two ETH Zurich campuses, Hönggerberg and Zentrum. The winners were mechanical engineering student Benedikt Ummen and Justus Söllner, an ETH Zurich chemistry graduate. Incidentally, this was not Ummen’s first achievement: he won the Innovedum ideas competition for students two years ago (Closing date for the next competition: 1 March 2014!).

Söllner and Ummen are keen to give the campus a new lease of life through furniture. The Enzo furniture that inspired them is shaped like a couch with raised ends and can be used for almost anything: it serves equally well as an armchair or a couch, a podium, a design feature at special events or simply as a sculpture.

Söllner has seen for himself in the museums district of Vienna how the Enzos can make an ordinary square more attractive. He and Ummen liked the idea so much that they wanted to introduce it on the ETH Zurich campus. This furniture was designed by the Viennese artist Josef Trattner and has proved popular with the general public in the museums district of the Austrian capital for years.

"The square in Vienna is actually quite dull, rather like the Piazza on the Hönggerberg campus," says Justus Söllner. "What attracts people to go there are these huge, brightly coloured pieces of furniture. I've tried sitting and reading on them myself. They're both attractive and comfortable. The Enzos will turn the Piazza and the Polyterrasse into people's favourite places to spend time at ETH Zurich," says Justus Söllner.

The seat that is also used for branding

The idea is not entirely new: in the past, ETH Zurich installed Roxel furniture designed by students working under the Gramazio & Kohler professorship. The predecessor to the Enzo, the more lightweight Enzi model in foam, has also already been tried out at ETH Zurich.

By comparison, the external pageEnzo modelcall_made that is being considered now is more sustainable: the Enzos – like PET bottles – are made of polyethylene, so they are easy to recycle and clean, and, since they weigh between 125 and 145 kg each, it will be hard for people to steal them.

"We wanted ideas for projects that could be put into effect quickly and effectively, and the Enzos satisfy that requirement perfectly," says David Müller. "Now we will concentrate on the design and on ensuring that the furniture is in keeping with the ETH brand."

That is another aspect the originators of the project had in mind: "The colours of the furniture can be customised so that ETH's corporate design can finally be implemented in a prominent manner on campus," they write in their project plan. The two winners just need to reconsider the name of the concept: Verrichtungsmöbel (Furniture for a purpose) does not have much of a ring to it.

The two students won 3,000 Swiss francs in prize money for their furniture idea and the Executive Board has approved a maximum sum of 50,000 francs to implement it. The winning pair and the Office for Events and Location Development are now discussing the fine details. If everything goes to plan, the furniture could be installed on ETH Zurich’s Hönggerberg and Zentrum campuses this summer.

Waste sorting and sustainable disposal

The second prize was won by Ivelina Grozeva, who received 2,000 francs for her disposal concept, ETH kompostiert! (ETH composts!). The third prize (1,000 francs) went to Jürg Trachsel for his project einheitlichi Ghüderchübel, which aims to make it easier to sort waste by using standardised waste bins.

Ivelina Grozeva is also delighted. She has just finished her architecture degree and, for the last three and a half years, she has been on the Board of Seed City, the communal garden project on the Hönggerberg campus. Her idea addressed the issue of how to dispose of compostable waste in a sustainable way.

"Many members of ETH Zurich are concerned about how we can reduce waste and reuse it through composting. That's why the ETH Zurich campus is ideal for testing how we can think in terms of closed cycles and reuse the materials from waste as locally as possible," she says. There is a good chance that her project will be implemented. The top six ideas will all be considered in future campus development, says David Müller.