Traditional planning methods for urban systems reach their limits, as continuous interactions among people and socio-economic and ecological variables generate increasingly complex and unsustainable environments, which impact human health, well-being and ecological quality. Our goal is therefore to generate exemplary sustainable urban patterns close to Zurich for selected case study areas on the regional and local scale. This requires developing new approaches clarifying design tasks through an iteration of thorough spatial, infrastructural and socioeconomic readings, conceptual interpretations and their testing – guided by design, supported by simulation and collaborative modelling. The input will be a multi-dimensional description of the present situation. The output will be sustainable urban patterns for 2030 and 2050, completed by a procedural model for the case study areas, sustainability indicators, a set of guidelines, and the process description. These deliverables will serve as base for education and further research in areas identified during the process.

To arrive at this goal, we suggest a design driven, interactive and iterative process that supports planners, architects and stakeholders. Based on simulation and collaborative modelling, socio-economic, ecological and aesthetical criteria will be formulated into urban design rules. Using advanced economic and transport modelling tools, ecological process models, and social analyses, criteria will be defined and also transformed into rules for integrated urban modelling. The resulting model will continuously accompany the emergence of alternative urban development scenarios of four selected case study sites in a design-simulation-collaboration cycle. Sustainability indicators allow for in-depth analysis and assessment of the resulting urban patterns by a interdisciplinary stakeholder group in a series of collaborative workshops. The stakeholders’ feedback is used for altering the urban design rules and thus iteratively enhancing the urban patterns. Experienced and innovative designers will intervene at defined points of the process to guarantee the link to the actual planning sites.

The project will integrate previously separated qualitative and quantitative design and research activities to propose realistic sustainable urban patterns. It will also bundle the diverse capabilities and methods of designers, planners, scientists and simulation tools to arrive at convincing sustainable urban patterns. The outcome will clarify our understanding of the necessary processes and provide new ideas for transforming existing urban-rural systems in a more sustainable way.