Gygax Site, CH-Biel
The Gygax site is located east of downtown Biel, between the Schüss River and the Champagne neighborhood. In addition to new administrative buildings for the Swatch Group, the site is primarily intended for residential development.
The design calls for dividing the site lengthwise — using a branch of the Schüss River — into a public park on one side and a neighborhood area on the other. The neighborhood structure consists of individual buildings, and its density thus complements the qualities of the Champagne site.
The neighborhood area is planned as a hard surface to contrast with the “Park Island,” within which the point blocks are placed on distinct, green islands in such a way as to create varied, high-quality interstitial spaces, and emphasizes a strict separation between public and private spaces.
Following the same logic, the Swatch Campus is being built on a landscaped base, but in terms of its internal requirements, it has been transformed from a point block structure to a row-house layout.
