Nomination for the ”Prix de thèses francophones de prospective”
Chavornay © EPFL / LAST / O. Wavre
Completed at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), Judith Drouilles' doctoral thesis is among the four nominees for the Prix de thèses francophones en prospective awarded during the recent Semaine mondiale de la francophonie scientifique in Cairo. Organized by the Fondation 2100 and the Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF), this prize aims to distinguish doctoral research carried out within the global francophone space and integrating forward-looking issues.
Realized with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) within the framework of the LIVING PERIPHERIES research project, the doctoral thesis questions the future of residential neighborhoods in the urban periphery in the Swiss context.
In a transition context, the future of peri-urban neighborhoods of single-family houses represents a real challenge. Due to their low density and high dependence on motorized private transport, their current situation conflicts with sustainability issues and raises multiple questions for their future development. In this context, the prospective work carried out here proposes a series of five alternative futures by 2050.
In addition to two underlying evolutions predicting a perpetuation of the zone villas model, the research develops three exploratory evolution scenarios of the neighborhoods according to topics such as soft densification, urbanity or landscape integration. The scenarios feasibility is tested through their implementation in an existing peri-urban neighborhood, typical of the urban region of Lausanne.