A blank sheet of paper. A pencil. And the question: What should be created here?
This is where real architectural thinking begins. Not in an architecture firm, but in a classroom at Tandem IMS Gymnasium in Küsnacht. This school year, students took on a special challenge: designing concepts for a new building right next to the Zurich Opera House.
The result is more than just a school project. It is a contribution to a real urban planning question. And from 7 March 2026, it will be on public display in an exhibition.
The Jugendarchitekturwettbewerb Zürich, which is centred around the Opera House is no simulated exercise. The brief is grounded in real conditions: a site in the heart of the city, an existing building with history, and the requirement to make a meaningful contribution to the urban environment.
For the students, this means taking a genuine stance. What should the building do? For whom? How does it fit in and where is it allowed to deliberately stand out?
The Zurich Opera House was not chosen by chance. It is a culturally charged location that sets high expectations. Just like the challenge given to the students.
The process began analogue. Hand sketches, floor plans on paper, first volumes that had no names yet. But this step is crucial, because drawing by hand trains spatial thinking that no digital tool can later compensate for.
Only once an idea has taken shape – when a vague notion becomes a real sketch – do digital tools come into play.
And this is where a distinctive feature of this project lies: AI was used, but exclusively in a responsible way.
The students did not use AI to generate designs. They used it to develop their own sketches further, explore variations and refine visualisations. The idea remains human. The technology serves it and this is exactly the mindset we nurture at Tandem IMS.
Those who work this way understand technology as a tool, not a shortcut.
Of course they learn something about architecture. But the real learning goes far beyond that.
They analyse an urban context and have to make decisions they can justify. They work on a design over several weeks and experience firsthand that good ideas take time and revision. They publish their concepts and learn to stand confidently behind their choices.
This is project-based learning in its most powerful form: not just a closed topic in a textbook, but an open question in the real world. And the answer is visible, assessable, and public.
For students interested in architecture, design or urban planning, this is an experience no school subject can replace.
The Jugendarchitekturwettbewerb is a testament to what creative education in Zurich can achieve when schools and cultural institutions work together.
Through this project, Tandem IMS Gymnasium has connected its teaching with the public. The students' work does not end in the classroom. It is shown and exhibited publicly. This changes how the students themselves approach their designs. It is not a class assignment. It is a project in the real world.
This connection between school work and public space is exactly what modern education should do: show that young people have something to say – about cities, about spaces, and about the future.
From 7 March 2026, all submitted designs can be seen as part of a public architecture exhibition in Zurich. Visitors can experience the students' projects in their full breadth, from the first sketches through to the final visualisations.
It is worth coming, because these works surprise. Not because of the use of fancy technology, but because of the thinking behind them: young people who seriously asked themselves what a building next to the Zurich Opera House should achieve, and found their own, considered answers.
The award ceremony takes place on 15 March 2026.
The students' designs are public. Architecture is not a subject for specialists alone. It concerns everyone who lives in a city.
If you want to see how the next generation thinks about spaces, cities and design, this is the place to be.
All information about the Jugendarchitekturwettbewerb and the exhibition can be found on the official project page of the Zurich Opera House:
👉 To the Jugendarchitekturwettbewerb Zürich
We look forward to seeing you.