Book launch of SUBURBAN POLARITY
© 2017 EPFL | LAST
Edited at the Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes (PPUR), the book SUBURBAN POLARITY presents a synthesis of multiples teaching and research activities conducted at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) for a West Lausanne sector particularly representative of issues linked to the creation of new suburban polarities. The book launch will take place on December 6th, 2017 at 6:30 pm at the Forum d’architectures de Lausanne (F’AR).
Questioning the consequences of urban sprawl leads to promoting territorial densification strategies aiming at reorienting the development of built areas inwards. This approach is not limited to city centers but also concerns vast territories located in the suburban rings of urban areas. Some of these sectors represent highly strategic opportunities for the metamorphosis of urban regions, in particular those nearby public transport stops – existing or future – offering the potential to host new constructions.
In a sustainability perspective aiming to optimally encompass environmental, sociocultural and economic parameters, the challenge is to go beyond the sole aspects of localization and built density. The creation of new suburban polarities in the heart of heterogeneous territories raises a large number of questions for the architectural project, related to the emergence of vast metropolitan areas.
In this context, the book develops a reflection on the design modalities of new sustainable neighborhoods within suburban territories. It presents nine urban and architectural visions developed for an emblematic West Lausanne sector awaiting a new future. Based on an interdisciplinary approach at various intervention scales - from urban design to constructive detail - they aim at experimenting, assessing and comparing various urban forms in a sustainability perspective. In parallel, several research works elaborate evaluative approaches on the same case study. These considerations thus become the source of a broader theoretical reflection related to the evolution of the architect’s role within densely built-up urban fringes.
The book launch will include short speeches by Pierre Bonnet, architect EPFL FAS, Geneva, and Prof. Emmanuel Rey, Head of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST). Presentations will be followed by an aperitif.
Suburban Polarity| Emmanuel Rey (Ed.)
Preface by André de Herde.
Contributions by Marilyne Andersen, Pierre Feddersen, Frédéric Frank, Vincent Kaufmann, Sophie Lufkin, Giuseppe Peronato, Parag Rastogi, Emmanuel Rey et Arnaud Thuillard.
Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, 2017, 196 pages.
ISBN 978-2-88915-215-5.