Opening of Switzerland’s biggest shopping centre in Spreitenbach (excerpt), from the programme ‘Antenne’, 12 March 1970. Schweizer Fernsehen

Shopper’s heaven or gates of hell?

The opening of the first major shopping centre in Spreitenbach in 1970 heralded a new era for retail in Switzerland.

Fabian Furter

Fabian Furter is a historian and works as a freelance writer and curator

In 1975, the Swiss Teachers’ Association published classroom poster no. 167. It shows an aerial photo of the town of Spreitenbach in the Limmat Valley. Or, to be more precise, it shows Neu-Spreitenbach, with its shopping centre surrounded by a vast car park packed with coloured vehicles and imposing blocks of flats in the background. Everything on this classroom poster was the result of precisely 20 years of turbulent development. Shopping centres, tower blocks and wide roads were symbols of progress and nowhere in German-speaking Switzerland did they become part of the landscape with more speed and consistency than in Spreitenbach. This former farming village became the urban blueprint of the post-war boom, which came to an abrupt end in 1975 with the oil crisis and subsequent economic recession. That same year, high-profile events were held to mark the Council of Europe’s Architectural Heritage Year and there was a reckoning with the effects of overly optimistic and indiscriminate efforts to modernise. This is why Spreitenbach was chosen as the subject of a classroom poster – as an example of ‘false progress’. How come Spreitenbach just outside Zurich was chosen as the site of Switzerland’s first major shopping centre, and how does it relate to urban development?

**Classroom poster no. 167, published in 1975 by the Swiss Teachers’ Association as a bad example of urban development.** Swiss National Museum

Model planning of Spreitenbach’s development

It all began in 1955: in the middle of a green meadow, far from the village of Spreitenbach, a sort of relay race began involving ambitious men with very different agendas. It started with Zurich architect, Mario Della Valle, who had set about building a tower block on the road between Zurich and Baden. At the time Spreitenbach didn’t have any legally binding building regulations, let alone a zoning plan. When disconcerted residents asked how high the building was going to be, Della Valle replied that he didn’t know yet but that he was planning 20 storeys. This gave rise to a legal dispute that ended up before the Federal Supreme Court. The Aargau government conducted an on-site inspection and the construction of what was supposed to be the first tower block in the canton of Aargau was delayed by several years.

Meanwhile, it transpired that the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) was planning to build a huge railroad shunting yard in the Limmat Valley. Just two years later, the routing for the future motorway was revealed. It too was to go through the Limmat Valley. The authorities in Spreitenbach saw the writing on the wall and had a structure plan drawn up for the construction of a modern city for 20,000 people. The design was young architect Klaus Scheifele’s first major work. His prototype, which was presented in 1959, caused quite a stir and was publicly exhibited. Not only experts, but also members of the Zurich City Council travelled to Spreitenbach to see the town of the future in model format, which, besides apartment blocks also had a shopping centre, supposedly the first one in Switzerland.

**Prototype of the urban development in Spreitenbach, designed by Klaus Scheifele (1931–2014) in 1959. The shopping centre is on the upper left edge of the picture.** Stadtarchiv Baden

In the years that followed, Spreitenbach became a gold mine for investors. Scheifele’s prototype promised planning security and high returns. After Della Valle came men such as Winterthur construction tycoon Bruno Stefanini, who had the plans turned into bricks-and-mortar at incredible speed. The farming village’s population had tripled by 1970. When Swiss television reported on the progress of construction work in 1967, the development in Spreitenbach was to a large extent already built. Through his real estate fund Interswiss, Denner boss Karl Schweri acquired the site reserved for the shopping centre in the prototype and placed an advert in the newspaper in 1961 looking for an architect with ‘experience in America’. This is how he found Walter Hunziker from Zurich, who had studied architecture and urban planning in the United States. Hunziker knew how to design a functioning shopping centre from his time spent stateside. Following extensive analyses and studies, the plans were completed in 1965. The building work got under way two years later.

**Model for the shopping centre in Spreitenbach by Walter Hunziker (1929–2022), realised in 1965.** Ringier Bildarchiv, Staatsarchiv Aargau

Invented in America by a European

1954 is generally considered the year when the shopping mall was born. This was when the Northland Center – which was conceived and designed by Viennese architect Victor Gruen – opened its doors in Detroit’s affluent suburbs. Gruen’s real name was Grünbaum and as a politically active Jew he had emigrated to the United States after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. There, he developed initial concepts for a ‘shopping town’ before the war was even over. His idea was to create a space for people in the faceless and dreary suburbs to meet, shop, and partake in culture. Areas where there was no pressure to buy were an integral part of Gruen’s concept. His first shopping malls therefore included petting zoos, nurseries, sculpture parks, post offices and meeting rooms. This raised the question of what a mall actually is by definition. Shopping malls bring together an array of different sometimes rival retailers, bars and restaurants, usually in an enclosed and air conditioned space. This type of mall sees itself as a covered high street, usually on two or more levels. A centre management team takes care of marketing and events for the whole complex. A shopping mall needs to have at least 10,000 square metres of retail space to be deemed as such. In Gruen’s prototype, the shopping centre would feature major anchor retailers located at the ends of the mall, with smaller stores interspersed in between. As hoped, shoppers would wander between the two anchor retailers, allowing the smaller retailers to take advantage of the additional foot traffic. This was the birth of the Gruen effect and its success was unprecedented.

**When it opened in 1954, Northland was the world’s first shopping mall. It was conceived and designed by Victor Gruen (1903–80).** University of Wyoming

The shopper’s paradise opens its doors

The idea of a shopping centre on a greenfield site required a consumer society that was mobile and had free time. With mass motorisation and real wage growth over the course of the 1960s, Switzerland was ready and the race was on for the first Swiss shopping centre. After the first small neighbourhood shopping centres integrated into urban structures were built in Oerlikon and Lucerne in 1967/68, Spreitenbach’s Shoppi opened on 12 March 1970 with 50 retail outlets, 1,550 parking spaces and seven eateries. But those in charge hadn’t forgotten Victor Gruen’s calls for non-commercial and cultural elements. Besides a bowling alley, the Shoppi therefore also offered visitors a swimming pool, art gallery and even an ecumenical prayer room. It was a national event. Up to 70,000 people flocked to the shopper’s paradise every day.

Opening of Switzerland’s biggest shopping centre, from the programme ‘Antenne’, 12 March 1970. Schweizer Fernsehen

**Shoppi Spreitenbach after it opened in 1970. Up to 70,000 people would visit the 200-metre long shopper’s paradise every day.** Management Shoppi Tivoli
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**Temporary exhibitions – here on racing cars in 1972 – increased the appeal of the shopping centre.** ETH Library
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Shoppi Spreitenbach mall after it opened in 1970. Fountains were a must-have in early shopping centres, like this one in Spreitenbach. They served as a meeting place in the analogue age and exuded a village square atmosphere. Ringier Bildarchiv, Staatsarchiv Aargau
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**The shopping centre in Spreitenbach in April 1970.** ETH Library
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**The Tivoli shopping centre in Spreitenbach, which opened four years after and right opposite Shoppi Spreitenbach, in October 1974.** ETH Library
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Despite, or perhaps because of, its economic success, Spreitenbach soon attracted criticism. To its detractors it was not a shopping paradise, but the door to a future hell sacrificed to frenzied consumerism and growth mania. Classroom poster no. 167 was the start of an epic debate about the true meaning of progress. And views on Spreitenbach are still polarised to this day: it’s a dream for some and a nightmare for others. One thing is certain, however: it continues to see steady growth.

Documentary by Fabian Furter on the shopping centre in Spreitenbach, from the series ‘Brennpunkt Aarau. Momente der Zeitgeschichte’, 2020. Zeitgeschichte Aargau / Fabian Furter

More of: 20th / 21st century Economy Society Architecture

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