Dr. Martina Schretzenmayr | Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung

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

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

Spatial Planning: Here’s Why



Kindly supported by



The NSL Archives were founded in 2001 and have, since 2007, been part of the Archives of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta Archives) at ETH Zurich. The NSL Archives contain holdings on landscape architecture and spatial planning and urbanism in Switzerland.

By international comparison, the institutionalization of spatial planning and urbanism in Switzerland was rather late. For a long time, planning was characterized by the commitment of a few key players, including freelance planners and ETH Zurich itself. Large holdings in the field of spatial planning are available from the NSL Archives in the form of the estate of Hans Marti, the holdings of the Institute for Local, Regional, and Land Planning (ORL-Institut) and the Institute for Transport Planning and Technology (IVT) of ETH Zurich, Planpartner AG (Zurich), plus the study for the New Alpine Crossing (NEAT study, 1986–1988).

The landscape architecture inventory focuses on the landscape-architecture dynasty of Theodor Froebel, Otto Froebel, and Robert Froebel as well as Gustav Ammann, Peter Ammann, Eduard Neuenschwander, and Dieter Kienast, which spans around 150 years of Swiss horticultural history.

Further information on the holdings and their use can be found at the gta Archives. Bequests to Swiss garden and landscape architecture can also be found in the Archive for Swiss Landscape Architecture ASLA.



Lavaux

This programme was broadcast a scant week before the vote on the Volksinitiative, the popular initiative to protect the Lavaux region, launched by environmentalist Franz Weber. Thanks to this initiative, the Lavaux region has been protected by the Vaud Constitution since 1977. In May 2007, the Lavaux region More

A Village Turns into a City

After the Second World War, more and more villages were subjected to “settlement pressure” as a result of economic and urban growth. Small villages become agglomeration communities. The contribution shed light on the situation before the Federal Act on Spatial Planning came into force. Link to the archives More

Surlej

In 1965, a construction consortium planned to develop the village of Surlej in the Upper Engadine lake district into a town of roughly 25,000 inhabitants. The project was prevented by the resistance organized by the Pro Surlej association. The statement by an Engadine inhabitant shown here is an More

Go or Stay?

In 1972, the authors of this report asked landowners of the municipality of Savièse near Sion in the Canton of Valais whether they had ever sold or would sell land – and why. This contribution reflects the situation of the inhabitants of a mountain village faced with a More

What Is Spatial Planning?

The conference „Vereinigung Landesplanung Schweiz” or Swiss Association of National Planning (VLP-ASPAN) found an answer to the question of: „What is spatial planning?” The respective contribution moreover provided an impression of the spatial dynamics prevailing at the time, shaped by the beginnings of suburbanization. Two weeks before the More

Rising Mountains of Trash

Ever since the 1950s, Swiss municipalities have been confronted with the problem of supply and disposal: rising mountains of trash and increasing amounts of waste water required major investments and a co-operation between municipalities. Link to the archives of Memobase

The Blenio Valley

The Blenio Valley is an example of the problems the mountain regions faced in the post-war period: the villages were marked by emigration. Land consolidations were to keep agriculture in the valley. Switzerland was seeking to safeguard the future of its mountain regions. Link to the archives of More

A2 Lamone-Melide

The construction of the national road system was wholly dedicated to progress: Switzerland was realizing a new road network that promised progress and corresponded to the modern era. However, in the beginning, little thought was spared to the impact on the landscape and settlement structures. Link to the More

A1 Lausanne – Geneva

The inauguration of the motorway section between Lausanne and Geneva took place just in time for Expo ’64. The event was celebrated as a “great day for motorized Switzerland”. However, the construction of national roads did not really take into account the spatial impact of the new infrastructure More

Avalanche Barriers

After the avalanche winter of 1951, protective measures were taken against avalanches all through the 1950s. Avalanche forests and shelters were built to avert much dreaded dangers and death. Link to the archives of Memobase

The Avalanche Winter of 1951

In the winter of 1951, 91 people died in avalanches – numerous houses, facilities and, in some cases, entire parts of a village were destroyed. Made aware of the dangers by these events, measures were initiated to protect the population: firstly, shelters were built and an avalanche forest More