Soak up the autumn sun on an Enzo

Provided the weather cooperates, ETH’s new outdoor furniture offers the perfect place to lounge in the sun. A total of 16 “Enzos” have now been installed on ETH’s Zentrum and Hönggerberg campuses.

Enlarged view: Enzos
The Enzos on the Polyterrasse provide comfortable seating. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Andrea Schmits)

Weighing 145 kg and measuring just under three metres long, the “Enzos” offer comfortable places for people to sit and study, eat or even take a short nap. Since the beginning of the week, three of these chair-cum-couches have sprung up on the Polyterrasse and three more have appeared in front of the university’s main entrance on Rämistrasse. Further Enzos can be found outside the ETZ building on Gloriastrasse, beside the NO building on Clausiusstrasse and next to the WEV building on Weinbergstrasse. Seven additional Enzos were installed on the Hönggerberg campus several weeks ago.

Thanks to their curved shape with raised ends, these pieces of furniture can be used in a variety of ways – as a chair or couch, as a theatrical stage, as a design feature at special events or simply as a sculpture. They are made of polyethylene and are 100% recyclable. Before the Enzos were installed, each department was given the chance to come up with their own unique designs for the decorative sheets stuck onto them.

One of the Enzos outside ETH Zurich’s main entrance serves as an “info-Enzo”, providing information about the size and weight of these pieces of furniture and a QR code which links to the Enzo website, where the designs by the individual departments are also explained in more detail.

A familiar sight from Vienna

The Enzos are the result of the winning project from the 2013 Ideas Competition run by the Safety, Security, Health and Environment (SSHE) staff unit, the ETH Sustainability coordination office and the Office for Events and Location Development. The furniture idea that won the competition is the brainchild of mechanical engineering student Benedikt Ummen and Justus Söllner, an ETH Zurich chemistry graduate.

Some people may be wondering where they have seen these Enzos before. In fact, they originally come from Vienna, where they were designed by Viennese artist Josef Trattner for the outside space in the city’s MuseumsQuartier.

Enlarged view: Enzos
The departments have created their own individual Enzo designs. (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Andrea Schmits)

Comments

Leave a comment

Leave a comment

We are happy if you comment on articles on ETH channels, ask questions or respond to comments from other readers. Please note our comment policy when doing so.

2 Comments

  • Jan Nagler07.07.2016 16:54

    The QR codes printed on the Enzos at Hönggerberg are not working because they are color-inverted. So we took pictures and inverted the inverted-QR code ourselves, using some program. Then we scanned again. And it worked out! Unfortunately, however, the corresponding webpage on an ETH server does not exist. This is very very sad, we will probably never lift the secret of the QR codes. Best, Jan Nagler and Miller Mendoza (D-BAUG)

     
    • ETH News editorial team11.07.2016 14:05

      Thank you for your comment. The Enzos website is being moved, which is why the link doesn’t work at the moment. We apologize for the inconvenience.