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Lucerne city
Eichwäldli squatters want to stay in old soldiers’ room despite eviction request
The “Eichwäldli family” registered through an online conference. There is no reason to tear down the former soldiers’ room on Murmattweg. Neighbors demand moderate maintenance of the building.
The old soldiers’ room on Murmattweg 2 in Lucerne (behind the AAL Allmend).
The dispute over the former soldiers’ room in Eichwäldli at Murmattstrasse 2 in Lucerne continues. “There is no reason to demolish the building,” emphasized Lou Schwiftig, spokesman for the “Eichwäldli family,” in a press video conference Thursday morning. The group, which has been living in the soldiers’ room for about two years, wants to stay there, despite a request from the city of Lucerne to vacate the building by the end of January 2021 at the latest. The squat continues for the moment.
Martin Wüthrich, another spokesperson, emphasized:
“It is a purely political decision of the city of Lucerne to demolish the building.”
Contrary to the statements of the city, the soldiers room can be maintained with relative effort. The city has already carried out some emergency measures, including wooden support posts attached to the exterior facades. In the online conference, the squatter group explained some of these measures on an outdoor tour. “We have offered the city to take over the building under the construction law,” Wüthrich said. “That would also mean that we would cover the costs.”
The squatters vehemently rejected the accusation of being unwilling to speak. Andrin Eicher, another spokesperson, emphasized:
“We have been trying to communicate openly for two years.”
Jean-Pierre Sommer, also a member of the “Eichwäldli family”, said they had invited the city and the engineer it had commissioned to provide an expert opinion. He added: “We are still waiting for a response from the city.”
Moved in as a subtenant in the summer of 2018
The “Eichwäldli family” moved into the soldiers’ room in the summer of 2018 as a sub-tenant of the then tenant. With the termination of the lease at the end of 2018, the group announced the occupation of the building. After talks in spring 2019 and the evacuation of the extension for security reasons, the city concluded a fixed-term rental agreement with the squatters of the main part of the building. Subsequently, it was extended by one year until September 30, 2020. The expired loan agreement was not subsequently renewed by the city, and the “Eichwäldi family” received a deadline of January 31, 2021.
The city of Lucerne insists on the demolition of the building
On Thursday, Marko Virant, Lucerne City Head of Real Estate, said on request: “The soldiers’ room was built very quickly in 1936 as a barracks to serve soft drinks. Even at that time it did not correspond to the state-of-the-art building technology at the time, especially in regards to the foundations and foundations. “The main construction defects appeared only six years after its construction, including the damage caused The ongoing renovations and additions would also have “made the static situation much worse.”
This has led to “today the building not only sinking centimeter by centimeter on one side due to the floating subsoil, but it has also started to rotate on its own axis,” says Virant. The roots of an adjacent tree and the changing heights of the groundwater level would endanger the static of the building with increasing intensity:
“The steep and twisted descent of the building will no longer be able to be statically compensated for in the near future.”
For Virant, therefore, it is clear: “The building cannot be renovated with a reasonable effort.” It has to be dismantled, that is, taken down.
The area serves the city as a land reserve for future needs. That is why it is available for temporary use for more than ten years. The city council sees this as a medium-term use of the neighborhood for SMEs, small businesses and culture. In the short term, the area will be revitalized by the neighborhood population starting in spring 2021. The “Eichwäldli family” rejected an offer from the city to stay in place with a caravan.
What if the residents of the soldier room don’t move out?
What happens if the “Eichwäldli family” refuses to leave the building at the end of January? “We assume that they will comply with the request,” says Marko Virant. “If you don’t do this, the city council will decide to start the next steps.” Virant emphasizes that the residents of the soldiers room are not currently considered illegal occupants of the city, “because we have extended the term on our part.” Representatives of the “Eichwäldli family” said in their online press conference about the situation and the procedure in late January 2021.
The online press conference to search:
