Sustainable Urban Development

Taking a break at «Puls 5» in Zurich West, the former industrial quarter

08.03.05 - The City of Zurich tries to achieve sustainable development in Zurich’s former industrial quarter "Zurich West".

Sustainability in urban and regional development is oriented toward the careful use of resources by integrating social, economic and spatial interests. Cooperative planning processes with the various actors contribute to a successful sustainable development.

Five years after the "Cooperative Planning Development 1999" for the former industrial quarter Zurich West, EBP assessed the sustainable development on a local, municipal, regional and supra-regional level, jointly with the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development of the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

We analysed existing and implemented projects and plans in terms of their potentials and weaknesses and evaluated them based on the long-term goals of sustainable development. We applied qualitative assessment criteria, suitable for urban restructuring areas that are defined by the following: dynamic development, a rapid change and interplay of private and public players, the limited influence of the city, and the overlay of the spatial influence of neighbourhood, city, agglomeration and state.

Our process was a participatory one, by conducting workshops with various impacted players and integrating their views in our evaluation and our recommendations.

The results are summarised in the ZKB-study «Aufbruch West?»