How Switzerland Moved an 1889 Brick Building 60 Metres Instead of Demolishing It

While most countries knock down old structures that stand in the way of new development, Switzerland has quietly built a reputation for doing the opposite. Instead of demolishing historic buildings blocking railway lines, roads or new construction, Swiss engineers often lift them onto rails or rollers and physically move them to a new spot nearby — a practice used for decades across the country to save everything from churches to farmhouses to industrial landmarks.

One of the clearest examples is the former administrative building of the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon, known locally as the MFO building, in Zurich’s Oerlikon district. Built in 1889, the 80-metre-long brick structure once served as the headquarters of one of Switzerland’s most important industrial companies, which later grew into engineering giants like ABB. When Swiss Federal Railways planned to expand tracks at Zurich Oerlikon station in the early 2000s, the building stood directly in the path of two new platforms and was slated for demolition.

Local residents and heritage groups pushed back, arguing the building was one of the last physical reminders of the area’s industrial past. Rather than simply rejecting the demolition plan, the city of Zurich commissioned architecture firm Müller and Truniger to study whether the building could be relocated instead. Their feasibility study concluded that shifting the entire structure to a site just outside the railway perimeter was both technically possible and economically reasonable, and the local government agreed to contribute land and funding. After years of planning, the move finally went ahead in 2012.

Moving something the size and weight of the MFO building required engineers to first support the entire structure on temporary steel props while the original foundation walls were removed and replaced with new concrete beams. Steel rails and rollers were then installed underneath, allowing hydraulic presses to slowly push the building along a fixed track. It travelled around 60 metres westward at just over a millimetre per second, a journey stretching across roughly 17 to 19 hours, before settling into its new foundation accurate to within a few millimetres.

The MFO relocation was not a one-off. Switzerland has moved several historic buildings over the decades, and specialist relocation firms — often family-run businesses in smaller Swiss towns — have built up decades of expertise in the niche field. Around 75,000 buildings across Switzerland currently hold formal historic protection status, and relocation is sometimes seen as more practical than redesigning an entire road or railway project around a single structure.