How much of the past can densification tolerate?
The Brunnergut residential development is a child of the post-war era. Functional, dense, with underground parking and a lot of neighborhood history. Now the building appeals court is stopping its removal from the municipal inventory and demanding an independent additional report. Winterthur must take a closer look before a decision is made on structural protection. The case shows how closely housing construction, monument preservation and heritage protection are linked today.
The Brunnergut estate was built in two stages in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and marked the transition to the functionalist, automotive city. As one of Winterthur’s first residential ensembles with underground parking, it replaced the Villa Malabar and reshaped an entire inner block between Lindstrasse, Kreuzstrasse, Sulzbergstrasse and St. Georgenstrasse. The 1954 planning application itself sparked a fierce controversy. Early debates about density, traffic and cityscape, as they occupy the entire agglomeration today
in 2016, the city of Winterthur added Brunnergut to the inventory of buildings worthy of protection, followed by its entry in the cantonal inventory of listed buildings of supra-municipal importance in 2018. This made it clear that the estate was not only considered everyday architecture, but also an ensemble with architectural and socio-historical significance that should be taken into account in any further planning
Legal ping-pong over protection
With the cantonal dismissal in 2024, the building department wanted to relax the protection status again. Based on an expert opinion from the cantonal monument preservation commission and subsequent additions. The Zurich Heritage Society challenged this, and the Building Appeal Court demanded a supplementary or top-level expert opinion during the proceedings and criticized gaps in the expert assessment
At the same time, the Winterthur city council planned to remove Brunnergut from the municipal inventory. The Zurich Heritage Society lodged another appeal against this. In its decision of November 6, 2025, the Building Appeals Court has now ruled that the city is unlawfully relying unilaterally on the KDK report and that the facts of the case have not been sufficiently clarified for the property to be removed from the inventory. The judges demanded an expert opinion from an independent expert who had not previously been involved. A clear signal for higher requirements for the justification of de-protection decisions
More than just a technical issue of monument preservation
The criticism focuses not only on formal deficiencies, but also on gaps in content. Imprecise plans, insufficient discussion of the qualities identified in the inventory sheet and an insufficient appreciation of the social and economic-historical significance. Specifically, the court criticized the fact that the role of the estate as an early example of dense, car-oriented post-war modernism and as part of Winterthur’s settlement history was not seriously included in the comparison with other estates
For urban planning and the real estate industry, Brunnergut is therefore far more than an isolated case. The procedure shows how strongly inventory decisions must be legally and professionally underpinned today if they are to survive in an environment of housing shortages, pressure to densify and politically heated debates about objections and heritage protection
What the case means for future projects
The Zürcher Heimatschutz sees the decision as a strengthening of the inventory concept. Inventories are not mere lists, but planning instruments that must meet high standards before they can be dismantled. For cities like Winterthur, this means that anyone wishing to subsequently remove protection must transparently explain why arguments relating to building culture, urban development and social history outweigh the interests of densification, renewal or returns
For investors, owners and planners, this increases the importance of well-documented surveys and early involvement of heritage conservation. Especially in the case of post-war housing estates, which were long regarded as “ordinary” existing buildings. Brunnergut shows that the second half of the 20th century is increasingly understood as part of the architectural heritage and that the path to conversion or replacement construction will in future often lead via independent expert reports and carefully balanced conservation concepts