Reinvigorating the Aire : Topographies for Filtering, Equipping and Connecting
with Alexander Svanfeldt, Hedvig Carlin, Tim Martens, Hampus Thysell, Merel Garritsen, Laura Gorni
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Fall 2021
Professors: Paola Viganò
with Alexander Svanfeldt, Hedvig Carlin, Tim Martens, Hampus Thysell, Merel Garritsen, Laura Gorni
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Fall 2021
Professors: Paola Viganò
From the source of the Aire at the foot of the Salève down to the dense urban fabric
of Genève, passing through small countryside villages, to the town of Saint Julien, to
the organized landscape of extensive agriculture and gravel pits, human settlement
and activity has fragmented the ecological continuity and compromised the health
of the watershed. In response to the fragmentation of the territory and degradation of
landscape, we expand beyond the existing green spaces, reinvigorating and reinforcing
them, creating a dialogue with the surroundings, connecting to the preexisting system
of the water courses and forests, maintaining a close relationship with the contextual
logic of topography. This will create an extending mesh of weak structure. This mesh will
hold together the territory of the watershed, exploring future scenarios. The connection
will create robustness and continuity. Ecological and anthropocentric functions will not
collide but coexist and overlap. The mesh includes a series of events: existing objects to
valorise, to implement, to adapt or radically transform and new objects that will define the
future landscape. It singles out areas of intervention and adapts itself to these situations.
The mesh allows continuous expansion.
of Genève, passing through small countryside villages, to the town of Saint Julien, to
the organized landscape of extensive agriculture and gravel pits, human settlement
and activity has fragmented the ecological continuity and compromised the health
of the watershed. In response to the fragmentation of the territory and degradation of
landscape, we expand beyond the existing green spaces, reinvigorating and reinforcing
them, creating a dialogue with the surroundings, connecting to the preexisting system
of the water courses and forests, maintaining a close relationship with the contextual
logic of topography. This will create an extending mesh of weak structure. This mesh will
hold together the territory of the watershed, exploring future scenarios. The connection
will create robustness and continuity. Ecological and anthropocentric functions will not
collide but coexist and overlap. The mesh includes a series of events: existing objects to
valorise, to implement, to adapt or radically transform and new objects that will define the
future landscape. It singles out areas of intervention and adapts itself to these situations.
The mesh allows continuous expansion.