Herreney Interlaken Building stage I

Worldwide, more people are familiar with Interlaken, yet not with Bern. When you ask a Tokyo travel agent to book a train from Zurich to Interlaken, their response is immediate: "Certainly, is it Interlaken East or West? This highlights how a destination can gain international recognition due to a jeweler and an innovative mountain railway.

The "Bödeli" land between Lakes Thun and Brienz is essentially aformer river basin, filled by the Lombach River on one side and the Lütschine River on the other. Between 1891 and 1895, a canal was built for shipping as far as Interlaken West railway station at the level of Lake Thun (mean water level 557 m.a.s.l.) and Lake Brienz, which is about 6 metres higher. The water was guided into the canal via turbines for power generation and resulted in a massive lowering of the groundwater level on the left side of the Aare. At that time, the Herreney peninsula was designated as a potential building area, allowing landowners to sell some of their land. Art Nouveau buildings along the canal promenade were then constructed, and later (around 1978) the semi-detached houses were developed along Tschingeleystrasse.

In 2009, the land was reassigned to the "Herreney" ZPP (Zone with Planning Obligation) with the owners benefitting from the seven-figure additional value. The community of heirs then decided to sell the land, a total of 42,141 m², to the Herreney development company (consisting of Urs Hauenstein's Zulg Immobilien AG and Peter Hauenstein's Hauenstein Immobilien AG). The subsequent architectural competition was won by HMS Architekten AG, the UeO (development regulation) process started at the beginning of 2014, was published in the summer of the same year, and ended with the appeal decision of the JGK on 6 June 2016. Cantonal red tape sometimes moves more slowly than we wish. On 23 August 2016, the municipality of Interlaken approved our building application of 8 September 2014 - and after the rerouting of the "Bödeli" main sewer line (dating back to 1912), we were able to start construction work in spring 2017.