Room program for day schools in the city of Zurich

In September 2022, 80.8% of voters in Zurich voted in favor of the nationwide introduction of day schools. At the same time, the city recorded rising class numbers. We were commissioned to develop a new indicative space program for day schools. Using empirical methods and comparing nine Swiss cities, we investigated how the city's program compares and where there is potential for savings without compromising quality. In a broad-based internal evaluation process, the financial effect of measures was quantified and weighed up against the expected educational consequences. Some measures simply had too little effect, for others the time was not yet ripe and around half were incorporated into the new standard. In the end, the city council was able to adopt the first indicative space program for day schools in Switzerland.