Helvepolis

Architectural explorations for metropolitan areas in transition.

Faced with the multiple challenges linked to the metropolization of the Swiss Plateau, territorial development today faces two pitfalls: on the one hand, maintaining spread that can tend to a certain equal treatment, on the other hand, promoting an excessive concentration of values in major urban centers.  Reacting to this observation, a more integrative vision was sketched as part of our architectural explorations on the densification of the various metropolitan territories. Called Helvepolis, it identifies strategic areas for the implementation of architectural projects that are part of a real transition dynamics towards sustainability.

As part of a long-term perspective that transcends the cleavage between town and country, Helvepolis aims to be a structured set of diversified territories, whose complementary components work in synergy and are interconnected by spatial, cultural, landscape, and infrastructural networks. In this approach, symbiotic relationships link urban areas – where most consumers are – and agricultural, industrial or artisanal production areas. Such a vision thus goes beyond the logic of socio-economic development focused exclusively on large centers. Not free from a certain hierarchy in terms of density, it nevertheless assumes a principle of differentiated polarization in urban, suburban, peri-urban, “rurban” or rural areas.

Research Partners
Laboratoire d’architecture et technologies durables (LAST)

Research team LAST
Prof. Emmanuel Rey, Dr. Martine Laprise, Dr. Judith Drouilles


Main publications

Helvepolis, une vision intégrative pour les territoires du Plateau suisse

E. Rey 

Les Cahiers de l’ASPAN. 2017. num. 2, p. 6 – 9.

Générer de nouvelles polarités urbaines

E. Rey; W. Frei 

Les Cahiers de l’ASPAN. 2017. num. 2, p. 10 – 15.

Métropolisation de la Suisse : entrave ou opportunité pour la durabilité ?

E. Rey; F. Frank 

2015. Forum Ecoparc 2015, Auditorium Microcity, Neuchâtel, September 9, 2015. p. 3 – 6.

Forum Ecoparc 2015. Métropolisation de la Suisse : entrave ou opportunité pour la durabilité ?

E. Rey 

2015. Actes de la 8ème édition du Forum Ecoparc, Cahier spécial de la revue Tracés.

Les démarches pour favoriser un développement territorial durable en Suisse

E. Rey 

La maison individuelle. Vers des paysages soutenables ?; Paris: Editions de la Villette, Collection Etudes et Recherches, 2012. p. 219 – 238.