Design Studio V-IX: Absence - Rethinking Landscape Structures for La Chauds-de-Fonds (M.Voser)

Abstract

absence - Rethinking Landscape Structures for La Chaux-de-FondsThe semester explores new ways of dealing with infrastructure projects and exemplary climate adaptations of the Swiss cultural landscape.

Objective

Newly timed landscape structures for La Chaux-de-Fonds A landscape of elongated gentle valleys, steep clefts and characteristic avenues - and with a great absentee: Water ! The streams and rivers, the floodplains and the debris cones are missing. If at all, the water shows itself only briefly after rainfalls - as flat points in this linear cultural landscape - before it then disappears into the underground and goes its own ways. And so the springs are also missing and with them the drinking water, so that the valley lived a culture of cisterns until 140 years ago. Erosion also appears in spots: the specific karst geology leads to the fact that again and again the soil is also withdrawn and the characteristic sinkholes are formed. Somehow, the course of things is also missing in this high valley; in many places, time seems to have stood still. Although the watch industry continues to build its commercial buildings on the fertile valley floors, the inhabitants, on the other hand, are migrating in the direction of Neuchâtel or France. But on a second reading, behind all these absences hides a glut of themes that have the potential to provide exemplary answers to contemporary questions: Due to barren soils, weather, and evaporating water, humans have created a cultural landscape that has always had to accommodate water scarcity and extreme weather caprices. The urban structure, optimized for the watch industry, with its slender buildings, garden layers and road network promoting ventilation, is already future-proof in terms of climate adaptation. In addition, the somewhat slower beating pace in this peripheral region offers the opportunity to take an innovative path for future development - a transformation process that can be adjusted and adapted. In addition to the challenges posed by climate change and demographic changes, major spatial structural changes are also on the horizon: The federal government and the canton are planning the expansion of the highway and the La Chaux-de-Fonds bypass. Already for the construction of the first of the three tunnels, 1'500'000m3 of excavated material are expected. The infrastructure projects, which are largely under the radar of the public, will massively change the valley and its landscape identity. The semester poses the overarching question of new ways of dealing with infrastructure projects and exemplary climate adaptations of the Swiss cultural landscape. Specifically, we are looking together for smart strategies for the use of excavated material. How can this be used wisely on site so that the valuable resource of water can be stored in the valley for longer in the future and a variety of added values can be created? In the search for the future role and identity of this space, students are asked to take their own stance and develop their vision for this distinctive landscape. What can we learn from the karst landscape around La Chaux-de-Fonds and how can we get the valley's unique clock working again?

Content

Designing landscapes and processes The primary goal of the studio is to project landscape. This entails the constant oscillation between territorial relationships and local actions - between landscape space and place. Due to the dynamics of their constituent elements such as soil, water and vegetation, landscapes change their dimensions and character with cycles and time. Designing landscape consequently means thinking in and designing systems and processes. 'Reading' a landscape, its space-defining planes, and the processes and forces that shape them is as much a focus of teaching as designing. Thus, an intensive examination of our understanding of landscape and our relationship to nature goes hand-in-hand with the semester. Students are challenged to come up with their own definition of landscape - a term that includes image and concept as well as pragmatism and romanticism. Because of the complexity of territory and task, the iterative design method is followed, oscillating between designing and analyzing, and between large and small scales. Developing an attitude, crystallizing the specific themes, and choosing the appropriate design tools are as much a part of the work process as designing the transformation processes. Parallel to the landscape design, the students get to know landscape architecture as one of the instruments with which today's questions can be answered. Because these increasingly demand different answers - systemic thinking, designing processes, accepting change and a differentiated landscape vocabulary are prerequisites for this. The joint trip of several days to La Chaux-de-Fonds is an indispensable part of the semester and will take place from 03.03. in the evening to 05.03. in the evening.

Resources