Albert Bodmer (city planner)

Albert Bodmer (born July 3, 1893 in Zurich , February 15, 1990 in Gächlingen ) was a Swiss architect and town planner . He is considered a pioneer of Swiss urban and spatial planning and was a supporter of the garden city movement . His main places of activity were Winterthur and Geneva , whose planning development he had a major influence.

Life

Albert Bodmer was born as the son of the civil engineer Albert Bodmer (including site manager of the Quaibrücken in Zurich) and spent his childhood in Zurich. After attending secondary school , he studied civil engineering at the ETH Zurich from 1912 to 1918 , where he was able to attend lectures by Hans Bernoulli . During his studies he and Konrad Hippenmeier won the development plan competition for a Greater Zurich, which ran from 1915 to 1918. Winning the competition organized by Zurich and 22 neighboring municipalities heralded successful careers for the two winners. After completing his studies, Bodmer became an adjunct of the city architect of Biel and in this function organized a development plan competition for Biel. In 1922, during this time, he won the Aarberg municipality's development plan competition .

In 1923 he moved to Winterthur , where he accepted the newly created position as urban planner. In this role, he created the first land use zone plan for a Swiss city, also known as the “Bodmer Plan”, in 1926, thus laying the foundation for today's “garden city” of Winterthur. As a supporter of the garden city movement, he was also a co-founder of the Heimstättengenossenschaft Winterthur and, during his time at work, brought Hans Bernoulli, another well-known representative of the garden city idea, to Winterthur, who realized settlements on Bachtelstrasse, Deutweg and Eichliackerquartier in the city.

After eight years in Winterthur, Bodmer took on the position of “Chef du Service d'urbanisme” in Geneva and in 1937, in this function, drew up the first cantonal structure plan. After 15 years, Bodmer relocated his place of work again and in 1948 became head of the regional planning office in Bern . In 1956 he finally went into business for himself and ran his own planning office in the federal city for three years before he was appointed to Turkey in 1959 as a UN expert for urban and agricultural planning . He then held this position from 1959 to 1963 before moving back to Switzerland. There he initially took a position as a district planner for the Winterthur - Zürcher Oberland region (1963–66) before becoming self-employed again as a freelance consultant.

Web links

• Thomas Fuchs: Bodmer, Albert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Bodmer, Albert, architect, city planner in Winterthur, 1893–1990 in the Winterthur Glossary.
• Albert Bodmer on the ETH website