Semester review of the RELIEFS URBAINS design studio
Reliefs urbains © EPFL / LAST / T. Beuret
This week took place the end-of-semester review at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. For Prof. Emmanuel Rey's studio, it was an opportunity to discuss the ongoing explorations of some thirty students who worked on designing a new neighborhood located on the heights of the city of Sion. The experts invited on this occasion were Antonio Gallina, an architect in Neuchâtel, and Maria Saiz, an architect in Vevey.
At a time of climate emergency and contraction of available resources, the architectural project has a central role in the search for alternatives to urban sprawl. It allows for the regeneration and densification of buildings near public transport and, more broadly, the inclusion of good construction practices within the transition dynamics toward a low-carbon society.
In the Swiss context, a large part of the urbanized areas is on slopes. This condition generates multiple challenges in terms of building and mobility. The implantation of buildings and the creation of public spaces are confronted with unavoidable questions regarding the relationship to the ground level and the minimization of soil excavation. In terms of mobility, it is a matter of rediscovering and revaluing electric transport techniques, specifically adapted to the slope, developed before the hegemony of the car.
Located between the plain and mountain, the site selected for the 2022-2023 edition could undergo a significant change in terms of mobility. By creating a new cable link, local actors aim to directly connect the railway station to the bottom of the Piste de l’Ours – both in winter and summer – in only 10 minutes. It would allow serving a new kind of ecological neighborhood yet to be imagined on a slope that is already largely artificially shaped.
The RELIEFS URBAINS studio will aim to explore, through the architectural project, the multiple issues, and potentialities of such a site. The studio will emphasize the question of intermediate housing, landscaping, and networking of public spaces according to the singular characteristics of the site.