Publication by LAST on sustainable neighborhoods
In the frame of the National Project "Sustainable Neighborhoods", the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) publishes a book edited by the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Available in French, German and Italian, this publication is a synthesis of the main issues – conceptual, methodological and operational – particular to projects addressing sustainability at the scale of a neighborhood.
In most cities and towns there are strategic sectors likely to evolve towards a greater integration of environment, socio-cultural and economic criteria. This transition to the status of "sustainable neighborhood" may involve various urban operations based on targeted intensification of still undeveloped land, on the regeneration of brownfield sites or on the renewal of existing neighborhoods.
They may differ in their operational modalities, but these projects are confronted in all cases in taking into account many complex issues. This publication is made up of a synthesis of the main issues related to the development of projects on sustainable neighborhood in Switzerland. It outlines a number of theoretical aspects linked to the importance of sustainable neighborhoods in the perspective of general development in urban areas, discusses the procedures specific to the assessment of sustainability and outlines the essential characteristics of the tool developed under the national project and tested in six pilot districts.