Redesign Town Centre, St-Imier, 1st. Prize Competition

Despite low traffic volumes, the public space in the center of St-Imier is currently dominated by areas for car traffic. The backbone of the center is the cantonal road (average daily traffic 5’700) with the Place du Marché and Place du 16 mars, where offices, shops, cafés, and restaurants are concentrated. Based on the urban development concept from the competition entry (1st prize), the street space was upgraded. In the central section, the cantonal road was designed as a shared space with wide pedestrian areas and buffer zones for the shops. The two main squares were redesigned as public spaces and representational areas for the surrounding buildings. By rearranging the parking spaces, room was created for events (market) and terraces for the adjacent gastronomy businesses. Additionally, an integrated traffic and design concept was developed for the entire municipality. With the redesign and new routing, important facilities (engineering school, train station, Mont-Soleil cable car valley station, hospital) were better connected to the center.