Viaduct 53 is part of the project Fashion House as the final theme that concluded the trilogy Carrying Capacities which formed the object of Berlage’s past three thesis development researches.

Fashion House is a collective architectural project that anticipates an alternative future for the fashion industry in five emerging fashion centers in and around Berlin, Marseille, Rotterdam, Valencia, and Zurich. Through the research and design of the Pattern Book, five Fashion House locations, and twenty-three contributions, the project anticipates that decentralized economic networks will span across national borders—led by joint efforts from cities and regions—to become instrumental in delivering a fashion industry that operates within the ecological limits set by a slowed global economy. These five cities–each the focal point of formerly post-industrialized regions that are undergoing shifts toward creative and service industries–form the Red Thread, an imagined discontinuous urban corridor that encourages an intercity exchange of products, services, and expertise to collaboratively introduce a paradigm shift in response to 2050 climate goals.  Fashion House explores the spatial implications of a fashion industry that is no longer “fast.”

Viaduct 53 introduces a club in Zurich as a crossroad between the members of the Red Thread. Nightlife always played an economic and cultural factor in regional and social growth. From Speakeasies to the iconic Studio 54 and the contemporary night scene, peculiar places have served as unique spectacles that embraced the desire for inclusivity, self-expression, and social standing. Placed in 2040 when the norm of pervasive sedentary and digitalized lifestyles inflate the fragmentation of reality through images, Viaduct 53 satisfies that image obsession and the thrill of escapism to a converted reality.

Mentors: Benjamin Groothuijse, Salomon Frausto, Paul Vermeulen