21st Century (2000–present)

Bern Stadtentwicklung Strategie

2016 · Switzerland · Western & Central Europe · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by City of Bern
Aerial view of the city of Bern, Switzerland (2009).
Aerial view of the city of Bern, Switzerland (2009). · CC BY 3.0

Core idea

Infill along PT; heritage balance

Why it matters

Swiss mid-sized city strategy

Description

A city development strategy for Bern, the Swiss federal capital, adopted by the municipality in 2016 to guide growth over the following decades. It directs housing and employment growth inward, concentrating densification on sites well served by the tram and S-Bahn network while protecting the UNESCO-listed medieval old town and the city's green setting along the Aare. The document works as a framework co-ordinating district transformation areas, mobility policy and public space investment rather than as a single design.

Significance

The strategy exemplifies the Swiss consensus around 'inward development' (Innenentwicklung) that followed the 2013 revision of federal spatial planning law curbing greenfield expansion. As a mid-sized city instrument it shows how transit-oriented densification and strict heritage protection are reconciled through negotiated, incremental planning, a model widely cited in German-speaking Europe.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.