Regional 2025 – projects for diversity

The Limmat Valley is growing and becoming ever denser. Cities like Schlieren or Dietikon are becoming more and more urban. The Limmattalbahn is an example of this development and will also trigger further surges. Newcomers and long-time residents move closer together and discuss future developments together.

The Limmattal – a diverse, coherent mosaic
Despite urban thrusts, the development and the initial situation are not the same everywhere. For example, Spreitenbach and Neuenhof are changing from the formative 1970s modernism to more urban locations, but the dynamic cannot be compared to Schlieren, for example, until now. Wettingen is also discussing densification, and the concept of the garden city, which has been so formative up to now, is being questioned.

It looks completely different on the right bank of the Limmat. The communities with their large single-family house areas look in amazement at the other side of the valley and watch the development from a distance. They are still villages and want to stay that way. This heterogeneity of the Limmat Valley, which can be interpreted as a difficulty, is above all its strength. In addition, with the formative landscape there is a kit that holds these pieces of the puzzle together. Above all the Limmat as namesake and identity bearer, as a unifying force of nature that meanders through the valley. But “spaces in between”, such as the Sulperg-Rüsler or Hüttikerberg-Sandbühl landscape corridors, are becoming increasingly important and are developing into a park landscape.

"City" is only of limited use as a guiding term for this diverse fabric and does not do justice to the differences in places and the role of the landscape as a framework for the whole. Experts therefore speak more of “urban landscapes” in order to do justice to this phenomenon. That is why the edge of the block, the square and the boulevard, as tried and tested city elements, are not always the cure-all. In doing so, it is often not considered that this does not correspond to the complex social, economic and spatial structures of the Limmat Valley. The implementation of this idea can be seen, for example, in the Limmatfeld, where the new structures have so far represented an island in the context of the surroundings and have not yet been able to form the desired lively center beyond the railway.

These new city modules are definitely a good contribution to the discussion about the future of the Limmat Valley, but they ignore many of the realities of the existing Limmat Valley and the sensitivities of the population. The starting point in the Limmat Valley is too complex to take just one approach. Industrial wastelands such as the Rietbach area in Schlieren or the Limmatfeld for consistent new urban building blocks are practically no longer available. Everything that is now added in the course of the consolidation must deal with the existing. The further construction of the Shoppi Tivoli in Spreitenbach requires different strategies than the densification of Wettingen or Neuenhof. And the strategies for the further development of the villages to the right of the Limmat require completely different recipes.

Overcoming boundaries – spatially and thematically
The whole thing becomes interesting in the combination of different strategies for the long-term further development of the Limmat Valley. In the longitudinal direction, the Limmattalbahn establishes the linear connection with high-density nodes along the stops. It is also exciting when the cross-connections are considered. So far, hardly trained, they have the potential to form completely new gravity lines: both in built-up space and in the landscape. The axes such as Schlieren-Unterengstringen or Dietikon-Fahrweid-Geroldswil, like the landscape corridors, offer an opportunity to connect the differences spatially and socially and to enable a new interaction across the longitudinal barriers.

This is also of great importance within the towns and cities themselves. Examples of this are various plans and concepts that must be pursued further: Schlieren would like to link the rapidly emerging new districts on both sides of the railway with the existing districts and the village center. In Dietikon there is the idea of a connection between Silbern and Niederfeld. Spreitenbach would like to extend the central axis as far as the Limmat, and Neuenhof is developing transversely to the main axis into “Neuenhof am See”. This requires new connections and bridges over the railway, the Limmat or over roads. These are not only spatial connections, but also bring long-term residents and newcomers closer to one another.

Growth and change therefore not only affect the areas of construction and mobility, but all areas of life of the population: The everyday life lived across borders is already reflected today in work, living and leisure behavior as well as in mobility and consumer behavior. What began with a visit to the Shoppi Tivoli in Spreitenbach in the 1970s will intensify with the construction of the Limmattalbahn and result in further investments. The cantons of Zurich and Aargau have therefore decided, together with 16 cities and municipalities in the Limmat Valley, to actively shape the development across borders using a new format. To this end, they founded an association in 2015, the “Regional Project Show Limmattal”.

To cope with the challenges and also to alleviate the “growing pains” in the Limmattal, the Regionale 2025 is pursuing a thematically broad approach which, in addition to the classic spatial planning issues, also includes the areas of culture and society. ■

Text: Peter Wolf, Geschäftsleiter Regionale 2025 / Bilder: Regionale 2025 bis auf Luftbild: ARE, Kanton Zürich