Town Centre and Station Area of Niederwangen, Köniz (1st Prize Competition)

Niederwangen is prominently located just outside the gates of the city of Bern, coming from Fribourg. The highway and the railway line strongly divide the village. Accordingly, the center mainly consists of commercial uses as well as some low-density residential areas.

The design envisions creating a new, attractive center for Niederwangen in stages, parcel by parcel. The Freiburgstrasse corridor will be strengthened with 4–5 story buildings. The center will be highlighted by a 7-story building, which will also mark the beginning of the “new Niederwangen center” with its construction in the first phase. The strong morphology of the new buildings around Bahnhofplatz will optimally connect the station and the street. Important sightlines will be created so that the station is easily identifiable from Freiburgstrasse.

The Dorfbach stream will receive a new appearance. It will be integrated as an urban, linear element within the new Bahnhofplatz. Seating steps invite people to linger and make the water experienceable.

Main themes:
New urban town centre, revaluation of street space, polycentric urban development, usage concept, urban interface, reurbanisation of a traffic junction, new station interface as district square and local meeting point, multimodal transfer point, development in phases

Categorisation:
District, Village, Train station, Operational and design concept, Masterplan, Village and district center, Competition, Transformation and densification

Project title:

New town centre Niederwangen, 1st. prize competition (2016)

Team:

Atelier CORSO LLC (lead; urbanism, landscape design)
mrs partner ag (traffic planning)
Raumdaten LLC (socio-economy)

Client:

Gemeinde Köniz

Links:

Next project:
Housing and Working District Lonay-Sud