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Our city. Our future. A cable car and an aerial metro connect the fragmented city.

General-Guisan Square, currently with lots of traffic and very little quality space.General Guisan Square. Turned into a pedestrian and bicycling zone with multi purpose stages and green space. A vision by Urban Zéro

General-Guisan Platz, before/after. New life is emerging in the car-free Bahnhofstrasse, with bike lanes, greenery and a public stage.

Cities around the world are facing great challenges. We want to help make the city we know and love the most, a model city: sustainable, green, connected and attractive for the economy and society.

And, here is how we believe to achieve a successful transformation: use new technologies and new forms of mobility, create areas close to nature, promote soft mobility, respect biodiversity, put local culture at the center, create meeting areas, increase tourist and economic attractiveness and create and maintain a positive image for a thriving city.

Urban Zéro is a vision of how the city of Biel and Nidau can meet the challenges of the future. It is based on Goal 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This focuses on urban development. We are making concrete proposals and would like to initiate the debate on the transformation of Biel and Nidau. What is important is that politics, business and the population mobilize and implement their common vision.

Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s): Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Urban Zéro is a vision of how Biel and Nidau can meet the challenges of the future.

How to succeed in the transformation

Vision Lake Park Biel/Nidau. Hier könnte eine attraktive Begegnungszone mit modularen Pavillons zur ganzjährigen Bespielung entstehen. Der Skywalk bietet ein spektakuläres Erlebnis, welches auf dem Waterwalk weitergeführt wird. Die Gondel ist ähnlich wie ein Monorail als Hochbahn geleitet, welche eine Kurve über den See fährt.The ropeway station connects the city with the lake. The space is turned into a park with pavillons that can be used year round. A vision by Urban Zéro.

Transformation of the Expo wasteland into a green meeting zone with year-round pavilions for events, concerts and culture. The park is walkable with a skywalk and the elevated railroad leads across the lake to the Magglingen valley station.

“Innovative projects can and must, in all their creativity, never lose sight of the actual usefulness and added value for the end customer during their development and implementation. The urban cable car in Biel could meet this requirement.”

Marcel Niederhauser

Doppelmayr/Garaventa

Our framework. Elements of transformation.

How can one make the requirements and needs of the city of the future easily graspable? The result is our framework with the dimensions: Green City, Social City and Smart City.

We are convinced that progress can be made in all three dimensions. Their common point of intersection is mobility. This is why the ropeway is at the center of the framework. The urban ropeway plays the role of "enabler": the new mobility concept should help trigger development in all three dimensions.

Framework Urban Zéro. Green City, Social City and Smart City. The enabler to connect the fragmented city is the ropeway at the heart. An Urban Zéro vision.

Green City

Social City

Smart City

Zentralplatz Biel Bienne. Current situation with lots of concrete, traffic and dead space.Zentralplatz Biel/Bienne. A vision by Urban Zéro.

The central square in Biel with entrance and exit for the cable car. The former meeting place could be developed into a meeting zone, the river could be made attractive and accessible with vertical gardening.

Green City

Sustainable and green: The Green City puts the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) into practice and creates a new quality of life in the urban space. Our mobility concept could be the key to this: A ropeway connects the lake to the city all the way to the industrial district of Boujean and a bus circle line runs around the city center. The inner city should be freed from traffic and cars and must offer space for new meeting zones. The same applies to the Expo area: the focus is on people, experiences and building a strong community.

Social City

Animating and inclusive: The Social City promotes social exchange across all cultures and social classes and encourages civic participation. To achieve this, residential, working and shopping neighborhoods should be more mixed and the quality in public space should be increased. Factors such as accessibility, visual attractiveness, convenience, practicality and safety play an important role, as does traffic calming. Our mobility concept offers an approach for optimizing all areas.

Smart City

Connected and interactive: the smart city connects the urban infrastructure in an intelligent way and makes digital tools available to the population. The use of smart technologies allows for a more efficient and effective use of urban resources. A first step in this direction could be a City App that enables intermodal mobility and at the same time serves as a means of communication. The Smart City is thus in direct interaction with the Green City and the Social City: smart technologies make the city both more sustainable and more pleasant to live in.

Whitepaper

Download our free whitepaper.

The vision of the global transformation of the city of Biel. Discover here how this vision could become reality.

The whitepaper is currently only available in German.

Download PDF
Lake Biel redesigned with container village, stage, skate park and Monorail in back. A vision by Urban Zéro.
Swatch building, cité du temps museums.This special place entirely dedicated to time unites under one roof the playful, cheerful style of the brand Swatch and the luxurious character of Omega offering its visitors an opportunity to explore two different worlds of watchmaking represented in two museums: Planet Swatch and Omega Museum.
Zentralplatz Biel Bienne, looking at the City Line ropeway Northbound. A vision by Urban Zéro.
Monorail crossing the lake in the cabin or walk below over the water. A vision by Urban Zéro
Main Station Biel Bienne with ropeway heading Northbound towards the city. A vision by Urban Zéro.
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Our 2030 Agenda. From vision to reality.

The first step is taken. The vision is in place. It is now a matter of developing the ideas together and intensively discussing the future of Biel and Nidau. Everyone is cordially invited to participate. The transformation will only succeed if politics, economy and the population are mobilized and want to change.
2023  Q1/Q2
  • Presentation and Advisory Board meeting
  • Determination of the agenda and roadmap 
  • First presentation of the project in a fixed location with visualizations
  • Urban Zero campaign informs the population of Biel, Nidau and the region
Ambition 2030
  • Seilbahn City und Hochbahn See sind in Betrieb mit vier Hubs
  • Neues Mobilitätskonzept umgesetzt

Advisory Board

Marcel Niederhauser, Doppelmayr/Garaventa

"Innovative Projekt können und müssen in ihrer ganzen Kreativität - den effektiven Nutzen und Mehrwert für den Endkunden in seiner Erarbeitung und Realisierung nie aus den Augen lassen. Die Stadtseilbahn Biel könnte dies erfüllen."

Als Projektleiter begleite ich meine Kunden in der Beratung, Planung und Realisierung von Seilbahnanlagen. Das schöne an Seilbahnen ist – die Projekte sind immer einzigartig und ihr Nutzen erleichtert dem Fahrgast die Überwindung einer Strecke mit häufig einem Lächeln im Gesicht. Seilbahnen bringen Freude.

Person 2

"Quote goes here"

Biography

Person 2

"Quote goes here"

Biography

Marcel Niederhauser, Doppelmayr/Garaventa

"Innovative Projekt können und müssen in ihrer ganzen Kreativität - den effektiven Nutzen und Mehrwert für den Endkunden in seiner Erarbeitung und Realisierung nie aus den Augen lassen. Die Stadtseilbahn Biel könnte dies erfüllen."

Als Projektleiter begleite ich meine Kunden in der Beratung, Planung und Realisierung von Seilbahnanlagen. Das schöne an Seilbahnen ist – die Projekte sind immer einzigartig und ihr Nutzen erleichtert dem Fahrgast die Überwindung einer Strecke mit häufig einem Lächeln im Gesicht. Seilbahnen bringen Freude.

Marcel Niederhauser, Doppelmayr/Garaventa

"Innovative Projekt können und müssen in ihrer ganzen Kreativität - den effektiven Nutzen und Mehrwert für den Endkunden in seiner Erarbeitung und Realisierung nie aus den Augen lassen. Die Stadtseilbahn Biel könnte dies erfüllen."

Als Projektleiter begleite ich meine Kunden in der Beratung, Planung und Realisierung von Seilbahnanlagen. Das schöne an Seilbahnen ist – die Projekte sind immer einzigartig und ihr Nutzen erleichtert dem Fahrgast die Überwindung einer Strecke mit häufig einem Lächeln im Gesicht. Seilbahnen bringen Freude.

Person 2

"Quote goes here"

Biography

We are in the process of setting up an Advisory Board composed of industrialists, economists, politicians and creative visionaries. Please contact us if you want to be part of this vision.

askme@urbanzero.city
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Urban Zéro is an independent collective promoting urban transformation and smart mobility to create the next climate-neutral city.

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