When people actively engage in shaping where they live
The spin-off?Resilientsy?helps?municipalities and cantons strategically manage and sustainably implement?their spatial development?plans. It also shows politicians?and landowners how?to ask the right questions.??
In brief
- It is more than ten years since Swiss voters said Yes to sustainable spatial planning – with inward development instead of further urban sprawl.
- There has been too little movement in the interim, however, says spatial planning expert and ETH lecturer Sibylle W?lty.
- W?lty’s spin-off Resilientsy helps town planners promote and create understanding for densification.
Flawil, a municipality in St Gallen with around 10,000 inhabitants, is taking a road less travelled – and actively involving locals in the planning process for strategic local development. Across two community events held last autumn, the residents of Flawil discussed potential future developments to where they live and work based on three animated scenarios.
These visualisations come from ETH spin-off Resilientsy, which was founded in 2023 by spatial planning expert and ETH lecturer Sibylle W?lty. The aim of the spin-off is to promote inward residential development, i.e. denser construction, with purpose and pragmatism.
Three scenarios from a bird's eye view
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Using three scenarios, the spin-off Resilientsy shows how Flawil could develop over the next 60 to 100 years if it continues as before (scenario 1), ... -
... with high-quality inward development (scenario 2), ... -
... or as a ten-minute neighbourhood (scenario 3). Buildings marked in yellow are new or modified, grey buildings already exist. (Visualisations: Resilientsy)
The visualisations illustrate how what are referred to as ten-minute neighbourhoods (see box) allow shops to benefit from customers within walking distance, how shorter everyday commutes reduce traffic and how living space is created for future generations. Although many were sceptical at first, in the end a majority of Flawil residents opted for inward development in the village centre – and against further urban sprawl in the municipality.
Ten-minute neighbourhoods
The concept of ten-minute neighbourhoods describes a living and working environment with a radius of 500 metres. Many everyday essentials can be reached within this radius: jobs, housing, retail outlets, restaurants, services, leisure activities and good public transport links.
A ten-minute neighbourhood requires at least 15,000 people living and working within the 500-metre radius. There should also be one job for every two residents. The result is a healthy social mix, vibrant public spaces and sufficient living space.
“We often hear that locals don’t want residential development,” says W?lty. “In Flawil, the opposite is true: people are willing to support change if they are involved and can understand the change.”
Swiss population growing, but planning lagging behind
The need for change in spatial and residential planning in Switzerland is enshrined in law: in 2013, voters endorsed inward densification when they approved a revision of the Spatial Planning Act.
Since the vote, the population has grown by over one million. And yet the level of housing created within the existing stock is still too little. “Instead of designing the future, existing structures are being managed,” says W?lty. The consequences are rent increases, longer commutes, residential areas that are spreading outwards and town centres that are losing their appeal.
This is precisely where Resilientsy comes in: the spin-off provides substantiated decision-making bases for municipalities, cantons, property owners and residents to promote inward urban development. It develops scenarios of what an area might look like if more people lived in the same space and fewer new areas were developed on the outskirts.
The visualisations also show what will happen if nothing changes. “If I don't build in the town centre, this will have consequences for the shops there and for the people who will then have to commute further and sit in traffic jams,” says W?lty. Resilientsy also offers data and legal analysis, consulting on issues such as conflicts between urban planning targets and historic preservation objectives and training on inner-city development and ten-minute neighbourhoods.
Planning office and living space simultaneously
As well as projects in individual municipalities, Resilientsy also works at the cantonal level. The spin-off developed a housing strategy for the Canton of Lucerne’s cantonal structure plan. The canton presented the results at public events using illustrative posters as a way of sharing information with politicians and local residents directly.
Resilientsy also supports landowners in creating greater flexibility and security for future developments and raises their awareness of important issues. For example, adjustments to the land use plan for one property made it possible to permit more types of use than before. This provides the owners with legal certainty and predictability for the sustainable, diverse development of the site.
“Switzerland needs housing in places where people want to live and where infrastructure is already in place,” explains W?lty. Anyone who permits offices or urban hubs has to simultaneously plan for housing. Otherwise, the result will be commuter traffic, unnecessary costs and unattractive town centres. Inward urban development is therefore not just a technical issue, it is a social responsibility. Municipalities, cantons, property owners and local communities must create the conditions today to ensure that the built environment functions in the long term.
About Sibylle W?lty
Sibylle W?lty was head of research at the ETH Wohnforum from 2016 to mid-2025 and now lectures at ETH Zurich. She tours her science communication project Zehn-Minuten-Nachbarschaften (Ten-Minute Neighbourhoods) around Switzerland, discussing possible future scenarios for local communities with the people who live there. She co-founded the ETH Zurich spin-off Resilientsy in 2023 with Miriam Lüdi as a way of putting her research into practice.
From research to practice
As a long-time head of research at the ETH Wohnforum, W?lty recognised that what was missing wasn’t knowledge – it was the tools to put that knowledge into practice. Resilientsy is bridging this gap. “We’re bringing constructive change to decades-old practices.”
The spin-off founder is a prominent figure nationwide when it comes to the topics of densification and ten-minute neighbourhoods. W?lty participates in discussions on Swiss television, writes opinion pieces for newspapers and blogs, organises exhibitions in garden centres or community halls, chairs panel discussions, gives presentations at trade conferences for the shopping centre industry and goes for walks with village residents. “If you want findings from academia to make the leap into practice, there’s no way around it: you have to find useful, practical solutions and raise awareness of the issue.”
More specific questions from planning committees
Spatial planning is a complex issue. W?lty sees this time and again in her conversations with the public. Politicians and public bodies must now take responsibility, says W?lty. “It's easier to score points by improving public transport links than by interfering with the existing settlement structure,” she emphasises.
However, W?lty also sees that the many public appearances, LinkedIn posts and media reports are increasingly having an effect. Legislators and other decision-makers are now asking different, much more specific questions than they did a few years ago.
Resilientsy’s work with the Municipality of Flawil concluded at the end of 2025. For the municipality and its residents, however, planning for how people will live and work in the village in the future is only just beginning. If everything goes according to plan, the new local development plan should be legally binding by 2029. By then, Sibylle W?lty will have motivated other cantons, municipalities and their residents to implement spatial development in a more sustainable manner in the future.