Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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Fig. 5: Expansion of small villages
housing without destroying the transition to the surrounding
countryside... A series of strategies is required to
densify and extend small villages while also attending to
the distinct landscape qualities of the encounter between
village and countryside. [Fig. 5]
What if we could not waste our land? Found new dense
villages connected to public transportation rather than
allowing existing peripheries to sprawl... Imagining new villages
is a revolutionary idea with regard to Swiss mentality:
the creation of 10 new towns from scratch! There exists
no historical precedent, only the selection of a site based
on some interesting landscape qualities and a very good
location. 10 different landscapes = 10 new towns. [Fig. 6]
What if our highways were beautiful? Consider them as
parkways... This pilot project addresses the first highway
built in Switzerland in 1964 for the international expo
which took place in Lausanne. This road traverses exceptionally
beautiful landscapes, which it ignores. Adjacencies
are mapped and a series of landscape interventions
are proposed at local scales to heighten the value
of the highways positioning within the larger territory.
What if we encouraged sustainable projects on agricultural
land? What if indigenous energy were cheaper than
imported energy? What if renewable energy production
facilities became attractions? Make “good combinations”
to link renewable energy, tourism and agriculture by making
them mutually supportive... This “good combination”
located on the Plateau juxtaposes a local farm with solar
fields. The farmer sells his/her products directly and joins
a small scale camping network. On a particular site in the
Prealps, wind farming, existing and new leisure activities,
and the reuse of a military fort insert new energies into an
alpine valley.
What if we learned landscape in school? Teach landscape
to educate future generations of decision makers...
Ultimately this is one of the projectʼs greatest ambitions,
that the work from the first two volumes of the study
Fig. 6: Insertion of new towns
could serve as a pedagogical tool by including it into the
curriculum of grade-school students as well as on the
municipal conference tables in all of the 375 cantonal
communes.
Conclusion
These devised tools, the Atlas, Typologies Palette,
Videos, and Pilot Projects, frame up a view of the Vaud
Cantonal territory while equally mapping out a vision
towards constructing its future. It is intended to be used
by the design community, decision-makers, and citizens
to assist in attentive development and planning based
on careful observation of the past and a concise assessment
of the present. In conclusion, the research from this
study retrospectively leads to a series of objectives and
priorities, a derived manifesto of sorts, summarizing the
importance in regards to intervention inside or along the
edges of Europe’s rural landscapes.
10. Reuse and recycle - buildings, landscapes and networks
9. Rediscover local
8. Reinforce the edge to protect the center, frame the
edge to value the void
7. Stop oil for food! - reduce transportation distances
for food - encourage market gardening and reinforce
the slow-food movement
6. Growth through density and densification - reduce
sprawl
5. Move less, slow down - reduce transportation distances
for people so they can enjoy the landscapes
in between
4. Re-image(ine) - marketing - communicate and “sell”
our territory through the products made from within
them
3. Find “good combinations” to achieve more than one
goal
2. Preserve history while not forgetting to make history
1. Turn landscapes into scholarship - teach the next generation
about the landscapes from our last generation
Papers