New catering facilities on the Hönggerberg campus

In view of the growing number of staff and students at ETH Zurich, the university is in the process of expanding its catering facilities on campus. The latest project to emerge from this "Catering and Retail" site strategy is the establishment of a full service, stand-alone pavilion restaurant.

To replace the Cheminsula lecturers' restaurant, which was closed at the end of 2012, a new restaurant is being built to serve lecturers, staff, students and external guests at ETH Zurich. The new building is to be erected at the northern end of Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse, offering views over the area around Zurich’s Affoltern district. Designed as a pavilion and built on a hillside, it will have a basement where food preparation will take place and a ground floor for guests.

The contracts for designing and implementing the new catering facility were awarded back in November 2013 as part of a competition for the complete project development. The commissions were won by Madrid-based architects Emilio Tuñón Arquitectos and the general contractor Priora Generalunternehmung AG from Kloten. The catering in the full service restaurant will be provided by external page ZFV, a catering and hotel business which operates across Switzerland and runs outlets such as the external page UniTurm restaurant at the University of Zurich and the external page Haus der Universität restaurant in Bern.

Serving local, seasonal food

As ZFV announced today, an innovative, high-quality catering concept is to be implemented which complements the restaurant architecture. "The facility includes a small bistro-style area for those who prefer plain and simple food served quickly and an elegant à-la-carte restaurant with seating for around 120 people. Next to this there will be a coffee bar," says ZFV, which is keen to stress that all dishes will be cooked using fresh, seasonal ingredients, produced locally. The prices will be roughly on a par with those of the UniTurm restaurant at the University of Zurich.

The process of obtaining planning permission is currently underway. As far as the Building and Constructions Infrastructure Division is concerned, construction work is due to begin in November 2014 and the restaurant is scheduled to open at the start of the spring semester in 2016. It has not yet been decided what the new restaurant will be called.

This will be the first catering outlet on the Hönggerberg campus to be run by ZFV, meaning that all four of the major Swiss caterers – DSR, SV Group, Compass Group and ZFV – will now be operating on this site. "We are extremely pleased to have been awarded the contract for the new pavilion restaurant, and with it the chance to establish our presence on the ETH campus," said ZFV CEO Andreas Hunziker. ZFV runs around 150 catering and hospitality operations across Switzerland, including Sorell Hotels Switzerland facilities, numerous staff restaurants, university cafeterias and the Kleiner bakery/patisserie shops.

A food market with three counters

The Physics canteen in the HPR building is currently undergoing a renovation, which will see it transformed into a new food market-style concept: guests will select their food at three different counters – with a choice between vegetarian cuisine, a pizza and pasta station and grilled dishes. The catering services will be provided by the SV Group, which was awarded the contract following a nationwide call for tenders. Each counter will offer students an affordable range of food, which they will still be able to buy for just 6.20 Swiss francs.

The food market will have seating for 620 people, which can also serve as workspaces with WLAN access for students during the mornings and afternoons. The seating options range from benches with or without back rests to high stools and chairs which can be reclined slightly, allowing people to relax and relieve the strain on their back.

The HPR building and other buildings on the Hönggerberg campus dating from 1960 to 1980 were listed in Zurich's "Inventory of buildings and gardens worthy of protection" in August 2013. This caused a delay in the process of obtaining planning permission from the authorities, which meant that construction work could not begin until early September.

The need to take the requirements concerning the preservation of listed buildings into account and the environmental remediation work currently being carried out have had an impact on the project schedule. The Building and Constructions Infrastructure Division is expecting the new facility to be ready to open by the start of the 2015 autumn semester. The temporary Hexagon canteen in the HPH building will cater for students and staff in the meantime.

A portacabin for preparing food and washing up

Until September, when the renovation work in the HPR building could finally start, it had still been possible to use the old canteen for washing up and other aspects of the food preparation process. For the last few weeks, however, food for the temporary Hexagon canteen has been prepared in the Mensa Polyterrasse cafeteria on the Zentrum campus before being transported up to the Hönggerberg campus. The dirty dishes are then washed up at the "FUSION meal" canteen, which is also on the Hönggerberg campus.

However, with 1,600 meals being handed over the counter each day in the Hexagon canteen alone, this system is being pushed to the limit. That is why, in mid-December, a portacabin is to be installed behind the Hexagon canteen to provide a temporary space for preparing food and washing up until the new food market opens.