Looking back on a pioneering approach
Quartier Ecoparc à Neuchâtel © Bauart / Yves André
To mark the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) Tower in Neuchâtel, the TV program “Couleurs locales” on RTS 1 devoted a report to the urban transformation of the Neuchâtel station plateau. Prof. Emmanuel Rey of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) was interviewed to talk about the urban, architectural, and environmental challenges inherent in transforming a railway brownfield into a sustainable neighborhood.
The report looks back at the many stages in the urban regeneration of the railway plateau. It highlights the detonating role played by the establishment of the FSO in the city of Neuchâtel, as much for the dynamics of the project on an urban scale as for the integration of environmental issues into the architectural approach that was extended subsequently to the entire surrounding neighborhood.
The Bauart office, of which Prof. Emmanuel Rey is a partner, steered this pioneering process over two decades. The latter explained some of the strategic parameters that made it possible to reconcile densification objectives for the urban environment, minimization of environmental impact, integration of renewable energies, and quality of city life. Today, more than 1,500 people live, work, or study in the Ecoparc neighborhood.