Contribution to the Water Designs exhibition
Rhodanie urbaine, site de la Jonction à Genève © EPFL / LAST
The “Water Designs” exhibition is a collaborative effort between Archizoom, Habitat Research Center, and Lausanne Jardins. On this occasion, the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST)presents several elements of the RHODANIE URBAINE research project. The exhibition, which runs until October 28 in the Archizoom gallery, invites a wide audience to discover the various contributions relating to the influence of water in the city.
The recurring emergence of water-related questions in a range of disciplinary fields such as spatial design, political ecology, hydrology, social sciences, and humanities, demonstrates the evolving interest that this element plays in the discourse of urban planning.
By offering an initial genealogy of water in territorial planning, the exhibition attempts to explore the complex history of this relationship, whose cultural, technical, political and economic perspectives vary according to the knowledge and fields from which it is observed. The new questions raised today highlight the strong interconnections, both theoretical and practical, between water and contemporary urban and territorial projects.
In that respect, the RHODANIE URBAINE research project aims to develop an integrative strategy specifically adapted to rhodanian neighborhoods in transition by means of various investigations articulated around the notion of “research by design” and tested on four study sites located respectively in Sion, Geneva, Givors and Avignon.