Biel/Bienne (CH)

Urban City Strategy

The City of Biel intends to develop, densify and, where necessary, up- grade the quality of the neighbourhood. The local housing cooperatives have formulated their goals within the scope of a participatory process to which they were invited by the City of Biel and Europan, thus laying the foundation stones for a dynamic, future-oriented urban neighbourhood. There is great potential to strengthen the residents’ identification with their own neighbourhood. All involved already recognise the careful use of resources as fundamental.

The point of venture of the project to develop this neighbourhood is its existing buildings. Various approaches for the existing buildings are conceivable: selective densification, replacement with new buildings, extensions and increasing the number of storeys.
Construction in stages must be made possible, with due regard to the consistent quality of the development and the outdoor spaces of each individual area.
The housing and recreational facilities should be diversified and appeal to residents who are in different stages of life.

Site Definition

The City of Biel/Bienne has set itself the ambitious goal, in cooperation with the housing cooperatives, of increasing the proportion of cooperative housing to 20% of the total housing quantity by 2035. This requires not only new cooperative housing estates, but also a densification of the existing ones.
The city aims to maintain and further improve the quality of the existing cooperative neighbourhoods and to renew them. The cooperative neighbourhoods, which contribute strongly to the identity of the city and the neighbourhoods, should continue to do so in the future. The cooperatives should also contribute to neighbourhood development with a future-oriented housing opportunity, versatile outdoor spaces and good mobility solutions

How Must Metabolism and Inclusivity Be Developed and Connected?

With a view to ongoing development of the Geyisried neighbourhood, the city and the eight housing cooperatives concerned intend to jointly develop a far-sighted, future-oriented development strategy for the competition area as part of the Europan competition.
The competition is intended to highlight in particular:
– how densification and renewal potential of the Geyisried neighbourhood can best be exploited while at the same time preserving and promoting the neighbourhood’s own identity.
– how the current rather one-sided housing supply can be renewed and supplemented so that a future-oriented and diverse housing mix is created.
– how to respond to the strong division of the Geyisried neighbourhood and noise pollution from the Orpundstrasse motorway feeder road, and how to better connect the northern and southern parts of the neighbourhood.
– how to maintain the dense greenery in the neighbourhood within the context of built form densification and how to strengthen the quality of the outdoor spaces as meeting places for a variety of uses.
– how, despite densification, the volume of traffic on the neighbourhood streets and the space required for parking can be limited with clever concepts for mobility and parking, and the interior of the neighbourhood can be kept largely free of motorised traffic.