Speakers
- Rima BOUNEMER
Architect and urban planner at Ema – Eric Maria architectes - Killian WORRETH
Architect at Atelier Descombes et Rampini, Geneva
Respondent
- Frédéric PITAVALEngineer specialising in the environment and aquatic ecosystemsCurrently heads the association id·eau, imagination durable pour l’eau douce, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. He brings to our territories a sensitivity to hydrological regimes and develops numerous transition projects, ranging from urban agriculture and soil permeabilisation to aquaponics and river revitalisation.
What post-industrial future?
A metropolitan park for the ecological reclamation of our urban ports
For centuries, humankind has sought to tame its territories, and systematic channelling has allowed it to master an element that is dangerous yet vital: the river. Today this rationalisation of watercourses is bringing new problems, linked to the pressure of climate change on European hydrological regimes, including the Swiss one. The Rhine, which rises in the Swiss Alps, is a representative case of this situation, widespread across Europe, since not only the water supply but also the navigability of one of the richest economic regions in the world is under threat.
The territorial impacts of these facts can be read directly in our landscapes, as urban ports are relocated to the still untouched, natural banks of the river. Yet this age-old colonialism must now be called into question, and the embodied energy invested in our harbour basins cannot be abandoned. The design hypothesis thus becomes an attempt to reconcile port areas with high-quality public and ecological spaces, while addressing the densification challenges of the city of Basel, studied as an example. The result is a metropolitan park project geared towards the ecological transition.
2nd lecture in the Sketchbook series Transition Seeds 2021
