Masterplan Altstätten

The city of Altstätten is located on the western side of the St.Gallen Rhine Valley and is a major center in the Rheintal region. The city is an important historic market location as well as a supply and service center for the region. Altstätten is well connected to the public transportation system (regional significance train station) and the road network (Kriessern highway interchange). The population is steadily growing. Furthermore, Altstätten has relatively large commercial and industrial areas. A new bypass road is planned to reorganize traffic within the city, ensure optimal access to the developing employment area, and create a high-quality transition into the surrounding landscape.

Against this backdrop, the city of Altstätten and the canton of St.Gallen decided to jointly develop an integrated masterplan addressing urban planning, open spaces, and traffic.

In a first step, the optimal route and design of the new bypass were defined. In a second step, the preferred variant was integrated into Altstätten’s settlement, traffic, and open space systems and coordinated spatially with the city’s development intentions. This resulted in three target visions for urban development, open space, and traffic that enable a sustainable and attractive development of Altstätten. Particularly at selected key locations—such as the train station, town entrances, along the new bypass, along the streams, and in the old town—spatial studies with detailed zoom-ins were created.