Winterthur invests in six smart city projects for 2025
How can artificial intelligence make cultural events more accessible? What solutions help to mitigate extreme heat in the city? And how can libraries be used outside of regular opening hours? These and other questions are the focus of six innovative projects that Winterthur 2025 is funding with the Smart City Winterthur innovation loan. The city is providing CHF 200,000 a year to support ideas that improve sustainability, digital innovation and urban quality of life.
Since 2018, Winterthur has been focussing on smart city projects that make the city more efficient, sustainable and liveable. Already 27 projects have been successfully implemented. In 2025, the city will continue to focus on innovative solutions for mobility, digitalisation and ecological urban development.
The subsidised projects for 2025 are wide-ranging. From the sustainable reuse of building materials to digital registration systems for school sports and an AI-supported cultural calendar. All projects aim to solve existing challenges with creative technologies and new approaches.
Six funded smart city projects for 2025
- Sponge city in action: Extreme weather events such as heat and heavy rain are becoming more frequent. This project is testing how green roofs and permeable soils can help to cool the city and better absorb rainwater. The effect of the sponge city elements is visualised in the Grüze innovation laboratory.
- Winti Re-Use: Construction projects often generate large quantities of recyclable material that has previously been disposed of. A new platform ensures that construction waste is reused sensibly in order to conserve resources and protect the environment.
- Spitex mobility: Spitex employees are out and about in the city every day – often in their own cars. This project is testing sustainable alternatives such as e-bikes and e-scooters to promote lower-emission mobility and create more flexible transport solutions for care staff.
- Smart registration for school sports: A digital platform aims to make registering for school sports easier, faster and error-free. Parents and administration benefit from an optimised process that reduces bureaucracy.
- CulturAI: Winterthur is a lively cultural city, but smaller events often remain in the shadow of larger events. An artificial intelligence (AI) analyses preferences and suggests individually suitable cultural events – even for users with little time for research.
- Winbib : Unattended opening hours make libraries more flexible to use, so that books and media can also be borrowed in the evenings or at weekends.
Smart City Winterthur 2030
The city of Winterthur is pushing ahead with its smart city development in a targeted manner. On 1 January 2025, the City Council adopted the “Smart City Winterthur 2030” strategy. The aim is to actively promote innovation, create new networks for collaboration and further develop the city’s digital transformation.
By promoting these six projects, Winterthur is demonstrating how modern, sustainable urban development can be achieved through creative approaches and the targeted use of technology.