Spatial Planning Concerns All of Us!

Our behavior affects the space around us. We decide where we live, how we travel and where we spend our free time. This impacts on space. Spatial planning is entirely in our hands. Spatial planning is democratic. Spatial planning allows everyone to participate. Kindly supported by Cinémathèque suisse.

Spatial Planning Creates Quality of Life

The task of spatial planning is to ensure that everyone is afforded a suitable living space. This can only happen if both public authorities and private construction companies assume mutual responsibility for the residential environment and maintain a philosophy of building as a whole. Kindly supported by Cinémathèque More

Spatial Planning Safeguards against Natural Hazards

Spatial planning prevents damage caused by natural catastrophes by indicating where it is safe to build and where, for safety reasons, building should not be allowed. Spatial planning protects human lives, buildings and infrastructure. Kindly supported by Cinémathèque suisse. Place: Davos and Linth Plain Interviews: Stefan Margreth, Institute More

Spatial Planning Reduces Traffic Congestion

Spatial planning provides for more compact settlements in which the distances to schools, shops, recreational areas and workplaces are short. The densification of settlements close to public transport stops or stations means that spatial planning also reduces car traffic. Kindly supported by Cinémathèque suisse. Place: Central Switzerland Interview: More

Zurich, a Sanctuary City?

28 October 2019, 18:00 – 19:30 | ETH Zurich, Leonhardstrasse 21, LEE E 101. This event is part of the series of events «Sanctuary Cities in Switzerland?», which takes place in Zurich, Berne and Geneva. The speakers in these events outline the developments in urban migration policies in support of More

Spatial Planning Saves Resources

The goal of spatial planning is to steer building growth in today’s existing cities and agglomerations in order to save on land, energy and infrastructure costs. Kindly supported by Cinémathèque suisse. Place: Ticino Interviews: Paolo Poggiati, Chief Planner Canton of Ticino Riccardo De Gottardi, Chief Officer Spatial Development More

Urban Policy Analysis

Societal, environmental, and technological transformations accentuate themselves in dense settings, pushing cities and metropolitan regions to the forefront of tackling complex policy problems. Whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or limited land availability, or aiming to generate sustainable development and inclusive technological transformations, cities tend to be More

Participatory Urban Governance

The realization of large urban infrastructure projects is necessary to achieve long-term planning goals such as sustainable cities, just cities or smart cities. Yet, these large urban infrastructure projects are more and more contested by city residents (for example Amazon HQ2 in New York, Toronto Sidewalk Labs, or More

Policy Analysis of Spatial Planning

Densification policies are at the core of the current revisions of the Federal Act on Spatial Planning. This research project analyzes the effects of densification policies on the housing market and the socio-economic composition of the population by making use of quasi-experimental research designs. We compare areas that More

MAS/DAS/CAS in Raumplanung 2019/21

Die Gestaltung unseres Lebensraumes und ein fachübergreifendes Verständnis für technische, ökonomische, rechtliche, soziale und ökologische Dynamiken der Raumentwicklung stehen im Zentrum dieser Weiterbildungsprogramme. Nebst Lernmodulen in verschiedenen raumrelevanten Disziplinen und der Arbeit an interdisziplinären Studienprojekten wird Planung als strategisches Problemlösungs- und Gestaltungsinstrument vermittelt. Das Bewerbungsverfahren für das MAS- und DAS-Programm 2019/21 ist abgeschlossen. Bei freien More

The Historic Centre of Bern

The content of the film is only available in German and French. After the Second World War, people looked for comfort instead of tradition. To make room for new buildings, some towns even wanted to demolish their historic town centres – including Bern. Link to the archives of More

Le Landeron

In 1963, Shell bought land in Cressier (NE) and, in 1964, began to build a large refinery there that was put into operation in 1966. A Category 3 national road had already been planned in the Cressier area within the scope of the national-road project 1954-1959. The prospect More

The Spreitenbach Shopping Centre

In the 1960s, Zurich’s rapid development began to penetrate as far as the community of Spreitenbach in the Limmat Valley. The former village slowly turned into a part of the Greater Zurich Area. In 1967, the foundation stone for the first Swiss shopping centre was laid here – More

The A2 and Its Structures

The construction of national roads had to deal with a lot of topographic obstacles. Here, engineering feats came into their own. The new structure was to “perfectly fit into the grand landscape”. However, the impact of the national roads on the spatial structure were largely disregarded in the More

Modular-Type Construction

The housing shortage that prevailed in the 1960s, had new construction methods emerge. Innovative construction techniques based on prefabricated concrete elements were tested to allow building more flats in a shorter time. At the same time, there was a call for spatial planning meeting the demand for new More

The Construction of the A9

The construction of the national road network mainly took place between 1965 and 1975. The realization of the new traffic infrastructure was also considered an aesthetic challenge as road construction always involves interventions in the landscape. Link to the archives of RTS

Private Residential Building

The housing shortage of the 1960s was a topic that was observed with great attention and also was of great political concern. In 1965, the Federal Act on Measures to Promote Housing Construction was enacted. Among other things, the Delegate for Housing Construction advocated setting up Swiss national More

Men and Planning

The village landscape as the very emblem of a safe personal biography slowly disappeared, towns grew endlessly and traffic ate up the landscape. “Plan wherever planning is still to be done” became the motto – because land-use planning had started later in Switzerland than in other European countries. More

Satellite Town Meyrin (GE)

The need for additional housing space that had existed since the 1940s also led to new concepts of housing development in Switzerland and, in Meyrin, to an entire satellite town being built. Link to the archives of Memobase

Typhoid Fever in Zermatt

The typhoid epidemic of 1963 was caused by contaminated drinking water. As a result, Switzerland introduced a ban for construction projects that were outside the scope of general sewerage projects. Link to the archives of Memobase

Nature Conservation

In the 1960s, “gems of the Swiss landscape” were increasingly caught up in the maelstrom of potential builders and speculators. Measures were sought to curb rising land prices, and the population was made aware of the need to protect the landscape in order to preserve it for posterity. More

National Roads

From 1954 till 1959, national roads were beginning to be planned. The first section – between Lausanne and Geneva – was opened in 1963 in view of the organization of the Expo ’64 in Lausanne. Switzerland wanted to present itself with a modern transport infrastructure at the Landesausstellung, More

The Magadino Plain

At the end of the 19th century, a water correction took place in the Ticino, and the Magadino Plain was able to develop from marshland into an intensively used agricultural area. In 1974, the Bolle di Magadino Nature Reserve was created. In the following decades, the settled area More

Land Speculation

The strong increase of settled areas after the end of the Second World War led to an overheating of the land market in the 1960s. In 1963, the Social Democratic Party SP and the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions submitted the so-called “land-rights initiative” (rejected in 1967). The More

The Halen Housing Estate

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Halen housing estate was built in a forest clearing near Bern. Halen was built using a construction method focussing on structural density and designed as a communal housing estate intended for families. Link to the archives of Memobase