{"id":62474,"date":"2023-09-25T09:40:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T07:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwtest.ginesta.ch\/immobilienwissen\/harmonisation-of-construction-terms-and-measurement-methods-in-the-canton-of-zurich\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T16:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:00:51","slug":"harmonisation-of-construction-terms-and-measurement-methods-in-the-canton-of-zurich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/immobilienwissen\/harmonisation-of-construction-terms-and-measurement-methods-in-the-canton-of-zurich\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmonization of construction terms and measurement methods in the canton of Zurich"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many of these terms are of course primarily important for architects who are submitting a planning application. However, the following changes may also be of interest to you as a property owner. It should also be mentioned that some municipalities have already included these terms in a revision of the building regulations, while others have not yet done so. It is therefore necessary to check exactly what the current situation is in each municipality.   <\/p>\n<p>And now, the most important thing in a nutshell:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>relevant terrain<\/u> used to be determined by the existing course of the ground. This meant that the ground could be changed when a property was built twenty or thirty years ago and this change was valid. The new situation is that the <u>natural course of the terrain<\/u> is valid. In other words, the way the ground was before it was ever changed. If it is no longer possible to determine the old state, the course of the terrain in the surrounding area is assumed. However, it is rumored in certain municipalities that new court rulings are already calling this &#8220;new practice&#8221; into question again. It therefore remains exciting to see how the established terrain will be interpreted in the future. At the same time, this uncertainty is not ideal for planning security.       <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Buildings that are <u>no higher than 1.50 meters<\/u> and have a usable area of no more than two square meters are no longer considered buildings and can be erected anywhere, even directly on a border. They also do not require a building permit. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>On the other hand, there are <u>small buildings that do not require a permit<\/u>, which may be a maximum of two and a half meters high and have a maximum floor area of six square meters. A reduced boundary and building clearance applies to them and they also no longer require a building permit. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Projecting building parts<\/u> may protrude a maximum of two meters into the boundary distance and no longer one and a half meters as before, for half and not one third of the fa\u00e7ade length as before. In addition, the projections may extend as far as the first floor. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>knee height<\/u> was increased from 0.9 meters to 1.5 meters. However, it is measured on the outside of the roof and no longer on the inside. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>minimum clear height<\/u> is measured between the upper edge of the finished floor and the lower edge of the finished ceiling or joist layer. It is still 2.4 meters and 2.3 meters in core zones. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In <u>roof spaces<\/u>, the height must be at least half of the floor area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>are storeys other than basement, attic and attic storeys. The roof, attic and basement storeys can also replace a full storey, but together they may never exceed the number of a full storey. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>chargeable plot area<\/u> in the case of a forest distance now corresponds to the entire area that lies within the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/de\/magazin\/glossar\/bauzonen\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=yes,dependent=no'); return false;\">building zone <\/a>. Previously, it was only the first 15 meters from the forest distance line. The <u>area of house access roads<\/u> is taken into account for the utilization\/building mass calculation. The areas of the basic, coarse and fine development are not taken into account. In the opinion of experts, there is some uncertainty here as to how the terms are to be interpreted exactly.    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>For the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/de\/magazin\/glossar\/baumassenziffer\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=yes,dependent=no'); return false;\"><u>building mass index<\/u> <\/a>the &#8220;above-ground enclosed space&#8221; is replaced by the building volume above the relevant terrain in relation to the chargeable plot area. An additional building mass figure for volumes that serve to save energy can be used in addition, up to twenty percent of the zoned basic figure. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>green area ratio<\/u> is replaced by the <u>open space ratio<\/u>. It is the ratio of the chargeable green area to the chargeable plot area. It is very important that the chargeable green area only includes parts of the plot <u>that are not sealed<\/u> and <u>do not serve as parking areas<\/u>, i.e. pure garden areas. This should have a significant impact and reduce the permitted building area considerably.   <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The building and zoning regulations of the municipalities in the Canton of Zurich can be accessed online via the municipal websites. There you can see the current status. If you would like to delve deeper into the topic, we recommend the comprehensive workbook <g id=\"gid_0\"><g id=\"gid_1\">&#8220;Harmonization of construction terms and measurement methods according to IVHB in the Canton of Zurich&#8221;<\/g><\/g> by Suter von K\u00e4nel Wild, which we have used as a source for this article with their permission. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h1>Harmonization of construction terms and measurement methods in the canton of Zurich<\/h1>\n<p>Most municipalities in the canton of Zurich are due to revise their building and zoning regulations, as these must all be standardized by the beginning of March 2025. This revision can lead to value-changing adjustments for homeowners. In this article, we have summarized what we consider to be the most relevant upcoming changes for you.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[383],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3.jpg","featured_image_data":{"title":"schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3","url":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3.jpg","width":1920,"height":1228,"srcset":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3-768x491.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3-1536x982.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3-1600x1023.jpg 1600w","sizes":"(max-width:400px) 400px, (max-width:600px) 600px, (max-width:768px) 768px, (max-width:1536px) 1536px, (max-width:1600px) 1600px","type":"image\/jpeg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/schweizkarte_kanton_paragraph_massband_v3.jpg","readingTime":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72636,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62474\/revisions\/72636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginesta.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}