Publication of the SIA Prize
A special edition of the magazine TEC21, Tracés et archi presents the projects distinguished during the 2012 SIA Prize which rewards the best Master in Architecture projects. Amongst these, one can find Julie Hennemann and Julien Emery's Master Project, carried out at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST). Exploring the current issues of sustainable urban densification, this work focused on the development of a specific vision for the regeneration of the disused railway area of Clarens (VD).
The SIA Prize is a Swiss distinction awarded by the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH), the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio (AAM). This distinction goes back to the sixties when the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) awarded a prize for Architecture degree works for the first time in Lausanne. The Architecture Professional Group of the SIA awards it to encourage a new generation of high-level professionals.
Julie Hennemann and Julien Emery's Master Project explores the strategic issues related to the regeneration of disused railway areas to limit urban sprawl by offering alternatives through dense neighborhoods in the heart of cities. By a first regional approach and a multi-scale analysis, this theoretical part focused at first on identifying issues and potentials of the Riviera and Chablais in the next decade. In a context characterized by the development of the Leman area, the disused railway area of Clarens stands out not only because of its strategic location but also because of the big gap between its current use and its potential.
By taking advantage of the situation and the topography, the project offers a regeneration of the entire sector in a mixed neighborhood and an urban cutting-out with the various existing buildings. Organized around a main new public space, it creates a new soft mobility itinerary by connecting the four main vertical accesses leading to the lake and by uniting the two plots constituting the wasteland. To give rhythm to the pedestrian path, this route is also sequenced by a variety of public spaces, ranging from landscaped to more urban, staging diversified relationships to the railway and the lake.
The supervision group who followed this Master Project was constituted of Prof. Emmanuel Rey (supervisor), Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (responsible for the theoretical part), Nicolas Strambini (teaching assistant) and Sandra Maccagnan (expert).