Images of the Periphery: The Architecture of Flex Space in Switzerland

The peripheries of Swiss cities are currently being restructured at an unprecedented pace. Specifically, new commercial and office developments are mushrooming along the major traffic arteries. Peripheral centers without a center have sprung up. In this paper, urban forms are described in relation to the architectural form. The new urban form comes with a specific aesthetic programme: the architecture and the planning design of the industrial and office centers in the periphery defy the mass-produced built environment of earlier suburbanization. Rather, ‘individualized’ architectural designs lend themselves to custom-made commercialization of the new urban landscape. Buildings increasingly become billboards which are strategically placed along freeways and rail lines. Finally, in what seems a marked difference to automobile-based peripheral centralization in North America and other parts of Europe, the Swiss example depends heavily on a state-managed expansion of the railroads and light-rail systems.