(fw) Shrinking towns and depopulated landscapes are features of many countries nowadays. The most dramatic example of this development is probably eastern Germany, where extreme change has taken place since the fall of the wall. In Switzerland diverse living spaces are changing too, albeit less dramatically. The debate on how to deal with the situation has recently gained momentum. Two years ago, in collaboration with scientists from ETH Zurich, the foundation "Avenir Suisse" published a book entitled "Stadtland Schweiz" (1)dealing with this theme. And recently the ETH Studio Basel, surrounded by a lot of media attention, presented the publication of the study "Die Schweiz – ein städtebauliches Portrait"(2) to the public.

Zurich isn't Detroit

The theme of "shrinkage and growth" is also one that interests the Center for Integrated Planning and Construction" (ZIPBau) (3). On the 9th of November, the association organised a workshop aimed at the investigation of this phenomenon from various perspectives. Angelus Eisinger, Professor for Urban Planning at the Hochschule Lichtenstein, lecturer at ETH Zurich and co-author of the Avenir-Suisse study, made clear from the start that shrinking towns triggered negative feelings. Metropoles, like Detroit, that have lost half of their populations over the past fifty years,or the above mentioned towns of East Germany, were sad examples to cross one's mind.

If one looks at the phenomenon from a purely statistical point of view, i.e. taking only the size of the population into account, then cities such as Zurich, Basle or Lausanne belonged to the category of shrinking cities. The reason for these shrinkages, however, was very different from the above-cited examples. In Zurich, for instance, growing wealth had led to a call for more living space. As a results, rents were high and young families had been forced to move to the agglomeration. In this case the shrinking city is quasi the motor for economic revival. When we talk of shrinkage, said Eisinger, we have to differentiate very clearly which processes are responsible for the observed developments.

Alpine regions offside

Naturally, areas also existed in Switzerland where a falling population was linked to economic decline. The peripheral, above all the alpine region and the Jura, were increasingly being "pushed off the map". Up until now, according to Eisinger, public policies have succeeded in dampening the exodus; it was very doubtful, however, whether this would be possible to maintain in future.

The US automobile metropolis Detroit has lost half of its population over the past 50 years. Communities in the agglomeration have witnessed strong growth during the same period. The centre of the city presents a sorry picture today. large

According to Martin Boesch, Professor of Economic and Social Geography and Urban Planning Policies at the University of St Gallen, the market is the main reason for the current structural change. The current tenor of the political establishment tended to foster the strengths and not to compensate the weaknesses. It was understandable that the border regions were not prepared to take this lying down. In view of scarcer financial resources the question arose though as to how politics should deal with peripheral regions. Boesch pleads for a new approach that would lead to a more differentiated regional policy. Available resources, said Boesch, should be targeted at and invested in so-called label regions and not distributed area-wide, anymore.

What does "growth" mean?

Another shrinking metropolis is the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. However, the mayor, Ole von Beust (CDU), is not prepared to see this happen without taking action. He commissioned a study with McKinsey to find out how the city could grow once again. The resulting guiding principle now furnishes the criteria for the city government's actions. In its report, amongst other things, McKinsey recommends to focus more on future oriented technologies, such as computer science, and bio and nano technologies. Dirk Schubert, lecturer of Urban and District Planning at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, is critical of this way of going about things. He not only finds fault with the lack of democratic support for this procedure, but also with the basic direction of the paper. It was doubtful whether a guiding principle that was based exclusively on business-oriented principles was applicable for a city. Moreover, the question needed to be asked as to what was actually being striven for with "growth". Schubert pointed out that shipbuilding was a dominant branch of industry in Hamburg just a few short decades ago. At that time, consultants would probably have advised the government to focus on this branch of industry. In hindsight we could see that this would have been a grave mistake.