La Ville Hospitalière

The agglomeration of Fribourg (CH) is located on the central Swiss Plateau, only a 30-minute train ride from one of Switzerland’s main metropolitan areas, around Lausanne and Geneva. The Fribourg agglomeration in its independence accumulated different development potentials over the years such as the relocation of the cantonal hospital, a new railway station and the university. Yet, because of its location, it not only needs to take its own future into account, but also to incorporate possible dynamics from its metropolitan neighbours such as population growth and economic pressures. A spatial layout was developed to imagine the different steps, starting with the hospital and integrating new developments on strategic and intelligent locations, challenging the rather infrastructural perspective of the initial brief. Based on this critical investigation, a strategic development framework was set up to deal with a multiple future in which housing new residents seen as part of a productive landscape that is combined with an ecological continuity.


  • Location

    Fribourg, Switzerland

  • Client

    Etat de Fribourg

  • Completion

    2020

  • In collaboration with

    Citec, In Situ, RWB

  • 51N4E project team

    Harold Vermeiren, Chloé Nachtergael, Freek Persyn, Matteo Novarino, Gianmarco Causi, Aurèle Rattez, Petar Petricevic

  • 51N4E involvement

    Framework for strategic development

  • Programme

    Hospital, housing, production, infrastructure, landscape, energy, mobility

  • Site surface

    250.000m²

  • Image credits

    51N4E