Master's Thesis ULS · Summer Semester 2018 · Bernadette Brunner

As planning challenges become increasingly complex and extend beyond municipal boundaries, the pressure on traditional administrative structures continues to grow. The rising number of municipal mergers in Switzerland over recent decades reflects a broader shift towards addressing local responsibilities at a regional scale. However, administrative consolidation alone does not guarantee successful spatial development. The potential of a region can only unfold through its spatial organisation and design. The failure or scaled-back implementation of originally proposed municipal mergers demonstrates the need for jointly developed spatial visions and shared regional identities.

Against this background, the thesis examines municipal mergers as a spatial phenomenon, using the Italian-speaking Swiss city of Bellinzona as a case study, and explores the transferability of its findings. The territory of “Nuova Bellinzona” comprises 13 formerly independent municipalities and, with an area of 164 square kilometres, represents the largest municipal merger ever implemented in Switzerland. However, the valley floor and the inhabited Morobbia Valley together cover only around 40 square kilometres. Situated at the junction of several Alpine passes, the Bellinzona valley has long served as a strategic transport corridor and has repeatedly been shaped by major infrastructure projects, from the Gotthard Railway to the construction of the motorway. With the implementation of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA), the question arises once again how another wave of infrastructure development will affect this spatially sensitive landscape.

The thesis therefore focuses on the potential of municipal mergers as a catalyst for spatial development and investigates the added value of understanding a fragmented territory as a coherent whole. Based on a strengths and weaknesses analysis of both the merged municipality and its former constituent municipalities, combined with a spatial mapping of assets and deficits, the study demonstrates that former municipal boundaries represent important future development areas. The identification of four overarching development trends and the interaction between transit, centrality, and identity effects highlights the need for coordinated spatial development within the confined valley floor. The thesis argues that the enhancement of so-called “inner peripheral areas” offers significant potential for creating new regional points of identification. Located at the intersections of former municipal boundaries, these spaces are characterised by concentrations of underperforming land uses and a wide range of spatial qualities. At the same time, their limited accessibility has so far hindered their activation and development.

Building on these findings, the thesis develops a conceptual framework consisting of four dynamic future scenarios that respond to ongoing processes, adapt them, and guide them towards a desired direction. A toolbox of planning strategies and implementation measures demonstrates, through a selected focus area, how overlapping inner peripheral areas can be activated through targeted transformation strategies and become new spatial connectors within the region. By proposing new spatial structures, institutional reorganisation, and a rethinking of the relationship between centre and periphery, the thesis presents municipal merger as an opportunity to redefine the principles of spatial planning.