Playing with scales
Saint-Gall © Atelier Corso
Han van de Wetering, founding member of Atelier Corso in Zurich, was invited by Prof. Emmanuel Rey’s studio at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) to talk about his work as an urban planner on two local planning projects. Entitled "Jeux d’échelle: Entre urbanisme et projet architectural", his lecture gave students the opportunity to learn urban planning projects for the cities of Zug and St. Gallen, which address the many challenges associated with slopes.
Han van de Wetering, an architect and urban planner who graduated from ETH Zurich in 1997 and TU Delft in 1999, founded the Van de Wetering Atelier für Städtebau in Zurich in 2008, which became Atelier Corso in 2025. As one of Switzerland's leading urban planning firms, their projects have won several awards, and are current winner of the Stadtlandpreis. Han van de Wetering has also taught at the HES-SO, the BFH and the ZHAW in Winterthur.
Atelier Corso is specialized in developing integral urban projects, especially in places with limited space, diverse usage requirements, and complex constraints. They take great care to combine unconventional ideas, sensitive approach to existing structures and specific spatial designs based on the specific realities of each region.
The conference highlighted these motivations through two spatial visions that approach the challenges of urbanity on slopes from different angles: Zug's, which results in an integral, precise and differentiated project for 2050, transcribed in a planning manual; and St. Gallen, which proposes a territorial project based on strong, contextualized spatial ideas to address issues such as traffic congestion through planning at the regional, municipal, neighborhood, and public space levels.
Resonating with the issues addressed in the studio RELIEFS URBAINS, the conference allowed students to put into perspective the didactic approach, from the urban project to the construction detail as a relevant process for the transformation of urban territories in transition.