The Green Arc of Bern: A Hundred Years into a Living City

A century from now, the city of Bern rises along the curve of the Aare like a cultivated forest of stone and light. Its historic arcaded old town, with its sandstone facades and medieval towers, remains intact, yet every rooftop has been transformed into a layered garden. The famous covered arcades shelter not only pedestrians but vertical orchards and climbing vines that regulate temperature and purify the air. The Zytglogge and the cathedral spire still appear in the skyline, yet somewhat subdued perhaps since between them grow giant eco-towers plus terraces of tall chestnut, apple, and hazel trees.

Architecture has evolved to imitate woodland structure: buildings step like cliffs, draped in greenery, their domes and towers functioning as solar-greenhouses powered entirely by plant-derived energy systems that rely on advanced biofuels, algae reactors, and wood-gas technologies refined to be clean and regenerative.

Green Bern, Switzerland, In The Future (by the Urban Futures team)

Energy in this future Bern flows from plants in a complete and elegant cycle. Managed forests in the surrounding region provide biomass through selective coppicing, a technique borrowed from medieval practice and perfected with modern ecological science. Algae cultivated in transparent river channels generate electricity while cleansing water. Rooftop greenhouses capture sunlight for photosynthesis-driven energy storage, replacing fossil fuels entirely. Even older technologies, such as waterwheels integrated discreetly beneath the city’s historic bridges, return to service, harnessing the steady movement of the Aare without harming aquatic life. The city glows softly at night, lit by systems powered through living cycles rather than extraction.

Food is no longer bought or sold but grown collectively and distributed freely as a shared right of citizenship. Terraced urban farms climb the hillsides, and edible landscapes fill every courtyard. Beans wind up balconies, grains ripple in former parking squares, and public greenhouses supply fruits year-round. The arcades that once housed shops now host cooperative kitchens and seed libraries. Plant-based nutrition has become the cultural norm, not through restriction but through abundance and shared celebration. Seasonal festivals mark harvests of walnuts, mushrooms, and herbs from the nearby forests, reinforcing the connection between nourishment and stewardship.

Social systems mirror forest ecology. Governance operates like a woodland network, decentralized and cooperative, with neighborhood assemblies acting like groves connected by citywide councils. Decision-making emphasizes balance and reciprocity, inspired by the interdependence found among trees and mycorrhizal networks. Economic life centers on contribution rather than accumulation. Craft guilds working with sustainably harvested timber, flax, hemp, and natural dyes produce goods meant to last generations. The egalitarian ethos resembles a forest canopy in which diverse forms thrive without one overshadowing all others.

Pollution control has become botanical in design. Living walls of moss and ivy line transportation corridors, filtering particulates from the air. Floating reed beds drift along the Aare, absorbing excess nutrients and ensuring crystalline water. Wetland parks expand along the riverbanks, buffering floods and providing habitat. Air is cooled and cleansed by continuous green corridors that link the surrounding forests directly into the heart of the city. Even transportation reflects plant logic: lightweight tram systems powered by bioenergy glide quietly beneath tree-lined boulevards, while bicycles and pedestrian pathways dominate daily life.

Above all, this future Bern celebrates its forests as the foundation of identity and survival. The wooded hills of the region are protected as living commons, managed carefully to ensure biodiversity and resilience. Children learn forestry alongside mathematics, understanding the rhythms of growth and renewal. Annual festivals of the forest honor the beech and fir, the mushrooms and mosses, acknowledging that the city’s prosperity depends on the health of the ecosystems that cradle it. In harmonizing its medieval architectural grace with plant-based energy, nourishment, governance, and restoration, Bern becomes not a city imposed upon nature but a flowering extension of it.