The Gaswerkareal in Bern was a production site for a long time before it became a largely inaccessible industrial wasteland. The City of Bern has organised an ideas competition for the development of this central site and the adjacent Brückenkopf West area into a new urban and diverse district.
The CCHE office was awarded second place / first purchase with its "Generation ß" project out of a total of 35 participants. The urban planning idea foresees a dynamic, flexible and ecological district, well integrated into the existing green space and very well connected to the surrounding area. It also offers innovative typologies to meet the needs of future generations.
Our project takes up the structure of the existing site and thus continues to write the industrial history. In terms of urban planning, our proposal is therefore divided into three zones: a first entry zone that interacts with the Sandrainstrasse, a second zone, the primary building zone, and finally a public park to the east, facing the Aare. Large "green chambers" structure the new district in an east-west direction and provide spaces for human beings as well as for flora and fauna. In addition, the numerous trees and green spaces promote a pleasant microclimate between the urban structures of the buildings. In order to achieve the objectives of the 2000 Watt society, the project is based on a passive strategy (minimisation of consumption through closed loop, wood and bioclimatic construction), supported by an active strategy to optimise the project area and compensate for additional consumption.
The culture of collaboration within CCHE aims to bring together the best specialists according to the needs of the project. This has enabled the "Generation ß" project to be developed entirely with the resources and know-how available in the office. The architects, urban planners, landscape architects and parametric designers used parametric algorithms to identify the best variant for the development of this new district.
Site plan, Axonometry, Masterplan
Images of the competition
