Launch of the RELIEFS URBAINS design studio
Sion © LAST / EPFL / N. Sedlatchek
Through an approach at different levels of intervention – from urban design to constructive detail – Prof. Emmanuel Rey's studio aims at analyzing and exploring with the specific issues related to the contribution of the architectural project to the transition of urban areas. Entitled RELIEFS URBAINS, the 2022-2023 studio will investigate the theme of sloping sites, exploring the multiple potentialities of mutation of such places, focusing on a sector located on the heights of the city of Sion.
At a time of climate emergency and contraction of available resources, the architectural project has a central role in the search for alternatives to urban sprawl. It allows for the regeneration and densification of buildings near public transport and, more broadly, the inclusion of good construction practices within the transition dynamics towards a low-carbon society. In the Swiss context, a large part of the urbanized areas is on slopes, which generates multiple challenges in terms of building and mobility. The implantation of buildings and the creation of public spaces are confronted with unavoidable questions regarding the relationship to the ground level and the minimization of soil excavation. In terms of mobility, it is a matter of rediscovering and revaluing electric transport techniques, specifically adapted to the slope, developed before the hegemony of the car.
Located between plain and mountain, the site selected for the 2022-2023 edition could undergo a major change in terms of mobility. By creating a new cable link, local actors aim to directly connect the railway station to the bottom of the Piste de l’Ours – both in winter and summer – in only 10 minutes. It would allow serving a new kind of ecological neighborhood yet to be imagined on a slope that is already largely artificially shaped. The RELIEFS URBAINS workshop will aim to explore, through the architectural project, the multiple issues and potentialities of such a site. Increased attention will be paid to the question of intermediate housing, as well as to the landscaping and networking of public spaces according to the singular characteristics of the site.