The delay is affecting a project that has been under construction since spring 2023 and is intended to create 123 affordable flats for around 450 people on the Kraftwerk1 building site. Occupancy was scheduled to take place in stages from late October 2026 to February 2027. Now, however, this timetable is falling apart at short notice for parts of the development because key service areas are not yet ready for occupancy.
According to the co-operative, the buildings with entrances 50, 52 and 54 are particularly affected. Only entrance 56 is expected to remain on schedule. For future tenants, the move-in date will be postponed by between six and twelve weeks, depending on the building. According to Kraftwerk1, the co-operative received this information at very short notice and only passed it on shortly before the first planned move-in dates.
Stairwells halt move-in
The cause is serious delivery delays on the building site. As a result, tightly scheduled completion works could not be finished on time. The backlog regarding the stairwells is particularly critical. Until these are finished, the regulatory requirements for occupancy cannot be met. For a housing project of this scale, this amounts to more than just a construction setback. Operations cannot commence in phases if essential safety and access features are missing.
Pressure on relocation plans is mounting
For the households affected, this means more than just a postponement of the handover date. Kraftwerk1 is searching within its own network for temporary accommodation and storage facilities for the period between the end of October 2026 and the end of February 2027. To this end, the co-operative has also asked its approximately 5,000 members to make space available for at least six weeks. This illustrates just how directly construction delays now affect the management and social organisation of a housing project.
The development is part of the larger Koch Quarter in Zurich West, in which ABZ, SENN and Grün Stadt Zürich are also involved alongside Kraftwerk1. According to the City of Zurich, around 340 social housing flats for some 900 people, as well as commercial premises and a public park, are being built across the entire site. The park has already opened. This makes it all the more apparent just how vulnerable even well-advanced housing projects are to late-stage problems with materials and finishing works.
