(nst) It has now arrived at ETH–the exhibition on the sweeping vision for the development of the ETH Campus at Hönggerberg. It was shown in Berlin and Barcelona during summer and autumn this year and attracted over 10,000 visitors (1). On Tuesday, December 14th, in the evening it opened in the ARchENA, part of the HIL complex at Hönggerberg, with a vernissage attended by ETH's great friend and benefactor, Branco Weiss, the President of the Municipal Council of Zurich, Marcel Knörr, ETH professor Annette Oxenius and two members of the ETH Executive Board, Olaf Kübler and Gerhard Schmitt.

Up-to-date

Science City is developing rapidly. Exhibits presented at the vernissage have been brought up to date and extended in decisive parts. One of the new elements, for example, is the winning project for the new sports centre (Architects: Dietrich/Unterifaller, Bregenz), already presented by "ETH Life“. Its construction will probably begin in 2007. At the centre of the up-dated version of the exhibition, however, are the designs of the four teams of Wiel Arets, Kees Christiaanse, Andrea Deplazes and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, which evolved during the test planning phase (2) carried out this summer with the participation of interested ETH-staff members, local residents and representatives from the city of Zurich.

Inside and outside views: a study corner at the exhibition. large

In addition to housing ETH research and teaching, ETH Hönggerberg will offer numerous points of contact for industry, culture and society; "University Campus and City District for a Thinkers' Culture“ is the programmatic formula. The draft concept from Kees Christiaanse provides the basis, as ETH Life already reported, for future procedure(3).

Making the future possible

"Science City is a real concept for the future, of which there are very few," said Branco Weiss at the opening ceremony. It was original, a coherent undertaking and one which wholly represented his favourite maxim for the future: It can't be predicted, only made possible, said Branco Weiss, citing the words of the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The project was also sure to undergo alterations on its way to fulfilment. But the courage to embrace change had always been one of ETH's strengths, he said.

Lively interest in the models, sketches and plans: Vernissage visitors to the Science City Exhibition in the ARchENA at Hönggerberg. large

The Höngg Residents' Association and the President of the Municipal Council of Zurich, Marcel Knörr, informed the visitors that "a large majority" of the district's residents were looking forward to the extension of ETH Hönggerberg. The vision was a healing counterpoint to the "mental paralysis" that had ensued in local politics, especially following the controversy surrounding a new stadium. Annette Oxenius, Assistant Professor of Immunology at ETH Zurich, compared Science City with her own research. Thanks to an improved infrastructure and in a similar way to the highly adaptable immune cell, which–once activated–stood in constant exchange with other cells, Science Citizens would enter into new exchanges with partners inside and outside ETH, hopes the scientist.

A sustainable campus

Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Vice-president Planning and Logistics, placed the development in the ranks of something that has already been happening at ETH for a long time, namely the development of Zurich to an important junction for knowledge; including not only to ETH and the Technopark, but also to the University of Zurich and the University Hospital. By 2010 Science City should become a sustainable and highly modern university campus for the 21st century and its stakeholders, Schmitt emphasised. Close attention would be paid to an exemplary use and management of energy and transport. For example, also in the future 90 per cent of students should commute to the campus by public transport, if they didn't live there, already.