Seating Accommodations
Benches and other seating devices are crucial for urban quality of life, for assisting active modes of mobility and reinventing urban space. But traditionally, benches are conceptualised more as design objects than as implements animating urban spatial politics. A limited standard knowledge exists on seating needs and preferences of citizens and cities tend to reinvent the bench and its placement. This project aims to understand the decision-making process regarding public benches in municipal governments and the various influencing factors and criteria. Its objective is to identify stakeholders and best practices, as well as possible needs for further training and research. Results will contribute to the development of seating policies integrable in the politics of mobility and urbanism.
Period : 2022
Project director / coordinator : Renate Albrecher
Consortium: City of Munich, Mobilitätsreferat, DE; Institute of Advanced Studies, Vienna, AT; Verein Bankkultur, CH
Funding / mandator : EIT Urban Mobility, KAVA 21164
Urban (in)hospitality: What place for newcomers in a precarious situation in Geneva and Brussels?
This project questions the development of forms of urban hospitality and inhospitality in European cities based on the cases of Geneva and Brussels. It will comparatively document and map the spatial and social trajectories of newcomers in precarious situations (undocumented migrants, refugees and immigrants) over several years.
Period : 2019 – 2023
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni, Maxime Felder
LASUR team : Guillaume Drevon, Joan Stavo-Debauge, Marie Trossat
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Cross-border commons. What modalities for integrating cross-border metropolitan areas in Europe?
The main goal of the research is to explore the conditions for developing cohesion in cross-border metropolitan areas. For this, it uses the concept of commons and analyzes the extent to which the existence of non-economic cross-border commons is a factor that eases cross-border relations, thereby creating cohesion.
Period : 2018 – 2022
Project director / coordinator : Guillaume Drevon, Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Garance Clément, Alexis Gumy, Ander Audikana
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Couples’ networks and geography : a motility approach
This research aims to study how couple satisfaction is related to the network and geography of couples in a motility approach. Family migration and physical distance with family and friends may cause strains on the relationship and can sometimes lead to union dissatisfaction and dissolution. Many studies have focused on women’s employment, since family migration is often driven by men’s professional careers. Another important but less-researched reason is that moving to a new place may sever social relationships and social networks one or both partners were embedded in at the previous place of residence. The couple’s network overlap, i.e. the degree to which partners share friends and family, has been found to be an important factor in couple identity, quality and stability. We expect that the ability of mobile partners to share friends and family in old and new places is likely to depend on individuals’ motility, i.e. all the characteristics enabling actors to be spatially mobile (mobility skills, access and projects). While the importance of spatial mobilities in the research of contemporary families is more widely recognised, few empirical studies have been done on these issues. This project aims to fill this important research gap by analysing how motility and couple’s network overlap moderate the influence of residential mobility on the satisfaction with the partner. Data from the MOSAiCH 2019 survey including a specific module of questions on the topic will be used.
Period : 2019 – 2022
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann, Gil Viry
LASUR team : Guillaume Drevon, Florian Masse, Jacques-Antoine Gauthier (UNIL)
Partnership : Réseau NCCR LIVES
Funding / mandator : FNRS NCCR LIVES IP6
Python package for open geolocation data analytics
Researchers and practitioners in the fields of travel behavior, city science, and urban planning are craving making good use of geolocation data. This project offers an open library to ease privacy-by-design calculation of the basics of human mobility patterns, integrated with open contextual data.
It provides a framework to re-unify the multiformity of urban dynamics data, to articulate open and restricted data, to cohere offer and demand data, and to keep track of a privacy metric.
Period : 2023
Project author : Marc-Edouard Schultheiss
Funding / mandator : ETH board grant for Open Science
Baseline study on the impact of the digital transition on the territory of Vaud
Based on the options taken by the Canton of Vaud in the digital field, the research objective is to explore the territorial impacts of the digital transition and to identify the identify the repercussions on the seven major issues identified for the complete revision of of the Cantonal Master Plan. Methodologically, it is based on interviews with experts and a state of the art.
Period: 2022-2023
Project director / coordinator Nicolas Baya-Laffite (UNIGE), Sandro
Cattacin (UNIGE) and Vincent Kaufmann (EPFL)
LASUR team: Chloé Montavon
Funding / mandator : Canton of Vaud
School enrolment projections 2020-2050 and the future of the Geneva school system by 2050 in relation to the planning of school building needs
The canton of Geneva finds itself in a complex urban context, marked
notably by a sustained demographic growth accompanied by important
migration flows, a specific cross-border situation, a rotation of the foreign population over the years, as well as a pressure on housing which has motivated numerous construction projects in a context of densification of housing in the urban agglomeration. In view of this dynamic context, the uncertainties regarding future socio-demographic developments are significant. The planning of the school infrastructure must take this uncertainty into account in order to ensure a quality public education service that is close to the age of the students, while supporting social cohesion. The research conducted aims to identify the needs in terms of school infrastructure in the Canton of Geneva for the secondary 1 and secondary 2 levels. From a methodological point of view, it is based on a demographic prospective analysis by scenarios and by expert workshops on the future of the school.
Period: 2022-2023
Project director / coordinator :Vincent Kaufmann, Mathias Lerch and Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team: Sonia Curnier, Chloé Montavon, Marc-Edouard Schultheiss
Funding / mandator : Canton of Geneva
Children on Campus
The EPFL campus has developed into a mixed and lively urban environment over the past two decades. Consequently, thinking about the EPFL community cannot be reduced to considering only students, professors and researchers, as often tends to happen. If EPFL outdoor spaces are to be genuine public spaces (diverse and inclusive) it is necessary to appreciate the plurality of their users, the diversity of their needs and aspirations.
Aligned with the ambition of the Vice Presidency for Responsible Transformation to create a “collective vision” for the transformation of EPFL into a campus piéton, this research project is an opportunity to reflect specifically on the place given to (preschool) children on a university campus. With the increasing construction of EPFL/Unil’s care facilities, children represent a growing part of the campus’ users. They should therefore be considered in its transformation process, on equal terms as grown-ups. Incorporating their perspective into the design of the campus piéton means envisioning outdoor spaces as spaces to be explored with their peers and their caregivers, as opportunities to acquire spatial competencies, develop motor and sensory skills and enjoy regular contact with nature, culture and the adult world.
Period : 2022-2023
Project director / coordinator : Sonia Curnier
Funding / mandator : Habitat Research Center / Living Lab Grant 2022
Pedestrian mobility: the role of public benches in the promotion of walking
Walking as a means of transport in daily life accounts for a third of all trips, yet it remains largely overlooked in mobility policies. In this context, the present research aims to test the hypothesis that the bench is an essential ingredient in the attractiveness of walking, for various reasons related to the conviviality of public space, the appropriation of time and needs for rest of an increasingly elderly population. It therefore aims to lay the foundations for a policy of the bench, an omnipresent but little-known object in the public space.
Period : 2020 – 2022
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann, Garance Clément
LASUR team : Renate Albrecher, Maya El Khawand, Kamil Hajji
Funding / mandator : Chêne-Bourg city, Lancy city, Lausanne city, Geneva Canton
Mobility surveys exploration: Strategic orientations for mobility policies in the Cantons of Vaud and Geneva
The Cantons of Vaud and Geneva are funding a LaSUR research project that aims to deepen knowledge of mobility in their respective territories. The project takes the form of a series of thematic files, based mainly on data from Mobility and Transport Micro-censuses.
Period : 2017 – 2022
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Guillaume Drevon, Yann Dubois, Juliana Gonzalez, Alexis Gumy, Armelle Hausser, Florian Masse, Emmanuel Ravalet
Funding / mandator : Canton de Vaud, République et Canton de Genève
PaNaMo Daily Mobility National Panel
The goal of this research project is to operationalize the concept of motility in the form of a typology applied to modal choice questions. It is based on the PaNaMo panel data and is being conducted in collaboration with the University of Burgundy, in collaboration with the CNRS.
Period : 2018 – 2022
Project director / coordinator : Guillaume Drevon
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann, Alexis Gumy, Eloi Bernier, Juliana Gonzalez
Partnership : Réseau de recherche PaNaMo
Funding / mandator : CNRS
Swiss in motion : analyzing and visualizing daily rythms
Over the past 50 years, technological developments in the field of transports and telecommunications have contributed to the reconfiguration of mobility practices which have become more complex involving daily rhythms acceleration. An abundant critical literature has described the harmful effects of acceleration on: individuals, social structures, equalities, modal practices and territories. Beyond an acceleration considered as linear, recent research developed on the case of Switzerland suggests that daily rhythms present a significant diversity in terms of spatial-temporal configuration and activity density. As the literature shows, the analysis of daily rhythms is becoming a central issue. The project aims to develop new analytical devices at the meeting between social and computational sciences to improve daily rhythms understanding.
Period : 2020 – 2021
Project director / coordinator : Guillaume Drevon
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann
Partnership : Digital Humanities Laboratory (EPFL), Institute of Geography and Sustainability (UNIL)
Funding / mandator : CROSS – Collaborative Research on Science and Society
Exploratory Research on Digital Citizenship
One of the objectives of the project is to identify and map digital participation devices that promote citizens’ contribution to urban projects at European level by putting their functionalities (proposals, opinions, polls, voting, etc.) into perspective.
The scientific challenge is to understand the effect of digital participation on local democratic mechanisms (origin of the initiative and perimeter of citizenship relative to the project’s influence), as well as to propose a typology of the approaches observed.
Period : 2020 – 2021
Project director / coordinator : Armelle Hausser, Benjamin Chevallier
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann, Guillaume Drevon
Funding / mandator : Orange Labs
The potential of tactical urbanism to leverage urban sustainability transitions: Analysing temporary walking & cycling infrastructure related to Covid-19
The decarbonisation of urban mobility patterns has proven difficult, since carbon-intensive modes of mobility have shown to be anchored in habits, the spatial organisation of cities, and infrastructural arrangements. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, mobility patterns around the globe were heavily disrupted. Furthermore, in response to the social distancing measures necessary to contain the spread of Covid-19, cities around the world have implemented ephemeral infrastructural projects inspired by tactical urbanism with the intention to favour cycling and walking.
The aim of this project is to analyse the potential of tactical urbanism-inspired measures deployed in a context of crisis and disruption to leverage transitions onto low-carbon urban mobilities, by opening up new perspectives for urban sustainability transitions.
This project contributes to a better understanding of how tactical urbanism can leverage and accompany urban mobility transitions in the context of a rapidly changing environment that will increasingly confront urban settlements with situations of crisis. By doing so, this project responds to the need to identify or develop approaches that can bridge between spatial and temporal horizons and dynamics. It analyses the potential of an approach to intervene in urban mobility practices that is based on ephemeral and small-scale interventions (tactical urbanism) to prefigure longer-term and larger-scale urban sustainability transitions.
Period : 2020 – 2021
Project director / coordinator : Mariana Fernandes, Franziska Meinherz (HERUS, EPFL)
Partnership : Laboratory on Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (EPFL)
Funding / mandator : ENAC EPFL
Citizen Bench: understanding seating-needs for active mobility
The public bench represents a close practical and emotional link between the city and its citizens. It is a key element for active and public modes of transport and the well-being of citizens. This project enables citizens to describe and share their needs of public seating accommodation on the web-application hogga.me, developed specifically for this projet. It empowers citizens and creates spatial awareness, connects stakeholders and promotes exchange; it allows involvement in the ideation process and promotes emotional ownership and advocacy. The city gets a feedback of citizen’s needs, preferences and restrictions concerning the form, material, placement, orientation of benches and their use. It can adapt its seating-offer to the different existing needs and therefore increase the quality of public space. The tool and method will be tested in Munich and serve for the development of an urban seating policy.
Period : 2021
Project director / coordinator : Renate Albrecher
Partnership : Munich City, Bankkultur association, IHS – Institut for Advanced Studies Vienna, Milano City
Funding / mandator : EIT Urban Mobility
Prospective analysis of mode choice behaviour based on the cross-border population of Grand Genève and the populations of the Cantons of Vaud and Bern
The research aims to provide a detailed account of the logic that underlies the population’s modal practices and their evolution through the development of a new typology.
Period : 2017 – 2021
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Juliana González, Guillaume Drevon, Eloi Bernier, Marc Antoine Messer
Funding / mandator : République et Canton de Genève, Ville de Genève, Ville de Carouge, Ville de Lancy, Ville d’Onex, Ville de Meyrin, Ville de Vernier, Unireso, Lémanis, Canton de Vaud, Ville de Lausanne, Ville de Morges, Ville de Nyon, Nyon Région, Ville d’Yverdon, AggloY, TL, Ville de Bienne, Agglomération de Bienne, BLS, Union des Transports Publics, LITRA
Grassroots Urbanism: Community involvement and participation towards the making of the city. Innovative research processes in India and Canada
This project addresses the issue of urban equity through a resident-based approach and their right to the city. It aims to develop a community methodology that can help empower populations marginalized during urban planning processes. More specifically, the project focuses on the urbanization challenges small urban centers on the periphery of Mumbai face, as well as the social and spatial issues confronting Quebec’s Aboriginal communities.
Period : 2019 – 2021
Project director / coordinator : Yves Pedrazzini, Rohan Shivkumar, Hussain Indorewala (Mumbai University), Janie Houle (University of Québec)
Partnership : Mumbai University, University of Québec
Funding / mandator : CODEV Seed Money
Hybrid cities: informal resistance and architecture to confront the violence of urbanization in India, China and Venezuela
As a science and ideology, contemporary urban planning brings with it the violence of urbanization. Using urban theories and interdisciplinary research approaches such as ethnography, sociology, architecture and urban planning, this project aims to analyze how popular groups occupy architectural, urban and geographical space and the re-urbanization of land and buildings thus produced in Chennai, Caracas and Guangzhou.
Period : 2016 – 2020
Project director / coordinator : Yves Pedrazzini, Florence Graezer-Bideau (CDH)
LASUR team : Salomé Houllier, Caroline Iorio
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Prospective research for the creation of a “Civic Tech Swiss Observatory”
The research aims to study the possibilities in terms of developing a “Swiss observatory for local digital Democracy”. To do this, it takes stock of practices and expectations with the stakeholders concerned.
Period : 2019
Project director / coordinator : Armelle Hausser, Jean-François Lucas
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann
Funding / mandator : République et Canton de Genève
Social housing residents’ relationship to their homes
This project is part of a vast survey designed to create innovative social housing that is better adapted to changing lifestyles. It questions social housing residents’ relationship to their dwellings in terms of aspirations, home ownership and the use of common spaces in Geneva. The project consists of a survey sample of a 700 people and a qualitative survey of eight exemplary transactions.
Période : 2018 – 2019
Chef de projet / coordinateur : Luca Pattaroni
Équipe LASUR : Garance Clément, Guillaume Drevon, Marc Antoine Messer (Mobil’homme), Maude Reitz
Partenaires : Mobil’homme, Enquête, HEPIA, REME
Financement / mandat : Association pour la création de logements sociaux innovants
Swiss topicity
Using the example of the Montreux Jazz Festival, this project explores ways of analyzing and representing the intensity of events and the spatial/social material reconfiguration of the urban fabric during major events. Using EPFL’s Time Machine Prototype computing and visualization capacities, it focuses notably on the development of a tool to dynamically represent mobility potential.
Période : 2018 – 2019
Chef de projet / coordinateur : Luca Pattaroni
Équipe LASUR : Thibault Romany
Partenaires : Digital Humanities Lab, Montreux Jazz Festival
Financement / mandat : Habitat Research Center Seed Money
Renewing the city from the inside
As part of a project initiated by HEAD’s Department of Interior Architecture, this research focuses on the impact of changing lifestyles on needs in terms of housing and common spaces in order to infuse innovation during renovation of the built environment. Interdisciplinary work will give rise to original ideas for adapting the built environment to new lifestyles.
Période : 2018 – 2019
Chef de projet / coordinateur : Luca Pattaroni, Line Fontana (HEAD)
Équipe LASUR : Garance Clément, Guillaume Drevon
Partenaires : Département d’Architecture d’Intérieur, HEAD
Financement / mandat : HES-SO
What future mobility with the autonomous car?
From the standpoint of urban dynamics and interurban exchanges, the autonomous car could play an important role, either in competition or in synergy with conventional modes of transport. The goal of this research is to identify mobility demand scenarios, including autonomous vehicles as a transport mode.
Period : 2016 – 2019
Project director / coordinator : Guillaume Drevon
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann, Élodie Dupuit (ENTPE)
Funding / mandator : Renault
Urban planning and the heterogeneous city. A study of the technical, social and political controversies around the 2014-2034 Mumbai Development Plan
Situated at the crossroad of sociology, architecture, planning and political economy, this collaborative research between the LaSUR and the Center for Urban Policy and Governance investigates the complex and contentious process of the production of Mumbai’s Development Plan (DP) 2014-2034 and the controversies it has induced. It allows to tackle the politicization of planning in a context of planetary urbanization.
Period : 2017 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team : Tobias Baitsch, Salomé Houllier
Partnership : Center for Urban Policy and Governance, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai)
Funding / mandator : SERI-CODEV (Flash projet)
Seniors: actors of the public space and full members of the society
Funded by the Leenaards Foundation, the “Seniors: actors of the public space and full-fledged citizens” research initiative was made possible through the participation of approximately 30 senior participants from the Canton of Vaud. The goal was to examine, discuss and evaluate their activities and how they used their skills in their urban environment over a period of several months. Six discussion workshops with six senior participants per workshop were held several times. Based on the data collected, we were able to determine how each took their place in the public space.
Period : 2018
Project director / coordinator : Kaj Noschis (Comportements)
LASUR team : Yves Pedrazzini, Dominic Villeneuve
Partnership : Comportements, Université des Seniors
Funding / mandator : Fondation Leenaards
Frequent Walkers: a comprehensive investigation of an emerging urban phenomenon
Walking is gaining interest for reasons related to public health, the environment, climate change and transport policies. Yet, the big walker phenomenon (individuals who spontaneously travel great distances on a daily basis) has never been analyzed. From a social standpoint, this population can be considered pioneering. It is therefore strategically important for actors in the public sector to understand who these people are, how and where they walk, and why.
Period : 2014 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Derek Christie, Michael Flamm (MICODA)
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Image of transport and the mobility of the future among teenagers in Europe
This research aims to analyze the image of transport modes among 14-17-year olds in Europe and to identify their vision of the mobility of the future. The research is based on a representative sample of young people in Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain and Italy. It used social networks to disseminate the questionnaire and collect data from these networks.
Period : 2016 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Guillaume Drevon
LASUR team : Emmanuel Ravalet, Vincent Kaufmann
Partnership : Social Media Lab EPFL
Funding / mandator : Toyota
An operational indicator to measure motility
The goal of this research is to develop an operational index of motility that can be measured in different territories, and to test its robustness. More specifically, it will enable us to measure the performance of a transport and communication system based on the population’s motility (namely the level, diversity and distribution).
Period : 2015 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Emmanuel Ravalet, Élodie Dupuit
Funding / mandator : Forum Vies Mobiles
Smart living lab: a social design approach
This research stems from the smart living lab’s desire to reinforce its technical development with a social design approach. The study provides social support for the design and layout of the smart living lab project, which is being jointly conducted by EPFL, UNIFR and HEIA-FR.
Period : 2015 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann, Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team : Derek Christie, Dominic Villeneuve, Marc Antoine Messer, Thierry Maeder
Partnership : Université de Fribourg
Funding / mandator : Smart Living Lab – EPFL Fribourg
Lifestyles, residential location and household energy consumption
This research aims to analyze the links between lifestyles, residential location and household’s energy consumption with regard to mobility and housing. The data is based on a survey of a panel of 2,000 households considered representative of the French population. This project is part of the research focus on household behavior within ECLEER’s Energy Demand and Consumption Dynamics division.
Period : 2014 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann, Emmanuel Ravalet
LASUR team : Lorris Tabonne
Partnership : EDF R+D
Funding / mandator : EDF ECLEER
Lifestyles and inequalities at the border: a case study from the Basel urban area
The research investigates the effects of the presence of a national border on the daily lives and economic conditions of individuals and households. Following major structural changes, the function and role of borders in Western Europe have evolved considerably towards greater openness. This increased permeability of borders offers numerous opportunities for many actors. Crossing the border allows individuals to use resources and opportunities that are specific to border conurbations, but also requires adequate access, skills and specific projects.
Period : 2014 – 2018
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Yann Dubois
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
CATS – City Alternative Transport System
This European research program aims to develop, test it and assess an autonomous public transport system’s acceptability among users and potential users.
Period : 2010 – 2017
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Stéphanie Vincent, Sonia Lavadinho, Derek Christie
Partnership : Consortium du programme CATS
Funding / mandator : Union Européenne
Living environments, lifestyles and leisure travel
The research aims to explore the impact of living environments on daily and occasional recreational mobility (by integrating long-distance travel). More specifically, these investigations focus on possible compensatory leisure mobilities in dense urban areas, as well as quantifying polluting emissions according to the residential living environment.
Period : 2014 – 2017
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Sébastien Munafó
Funding / mandator : Forum Vies Mobiles
Understanding the factors that influence urban mobility
This research was conducted as part of the Cross program, a collaboration between UNIL and EPFL and led to the creation of a space of collaboration between three teams from different disciplines. The gathering resulted in the creation of a book entitled “Mobility in questions”, which deals with urban mobility issues.
Period : 2015 – 2017
Project director / coordinator : Michel Bierlaire, Vincent Kaufmann, Patrick Rérat (UNIL)
LASUR team : Emmanuel Ravalet, Derek Christie, Sébastien Munafo, Ander Audikana, Antonin Danalet, Stefan Binder
Partnership : UNIL
Funding / mandator : Cross UNIL-EPFL
La Ville est à Vous, a neighbourhood celebration in the 21st century
The project presents an in-depth investigation into the political and practical issues surrounding the genesis of Geneva’s La Ville à Vous initiative, a series of participative neighborhood celebrations. It analyzes the social and spatial processes of occupying and regulating the public space, as well as the event’s impact on civil society and the professionalization of major events. Ultimately, it offers an unprecedented look at the place of event policies in urban development.
Period : 2016
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team : Pascal Viot (iSSUE), Lucien Delley
Partnership : iSSUE
Funding / mandator : Service Agenda 21, Ville de Genève
Housing cooperatives in Canton of Vaud
This study provides a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative overview of housing cooperatives in the Canton of Vaud. It questions the transition from housing co-operatives to resident co-operatives and the role of participation in the production and management of housing more generally. Its goal is to allow us to reflect on the importance of cooperatives in urban development.
Period : 2015 – 2016
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team : Sarah Isler
Partnership : Service des communes et du logement du canton de Vaud
Funding / mandator : Canton de Vaud
The creative city in question: socio-spatial transformations of cultural issues in Geneva and Lisbon
This research comparatively questions changes in the relationship between art, capitalism and the territory in Geneva and Lisbon. More specifically, it analyzes the impact of creative city ideologies on countercultures and how they are incorporated into contemporary forms of urban production, and highlights the transition of cultural issues into urban issues.
Period : 2012 – 2016
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni
LASUR team : Leticia Carmo, Yves Peddrazzini, Misch Piraud, Emmanuel Ravalet
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Bois de la Bâtie Masterplan
This project involved the realization of the sociological component of the Masterplan for the renovation of the Bois de la Bâtie in Geneva. Reflection on political and cultural issues surrounding changes in how nature is used in the city.
Period : 2014 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni
Partnership : Atelier Descombes Rampini
Funding / mandator : Ville de Genève
noLand’s man project: travellers, camps and roadsides – investigation into the practices and values of an invisible people
This research aims to describe, understand and analyze the lifestyles and living practices of “travelers” (new non-ethnic nomads) through an interdisciplinary collective work combining anthropology, architecture, photography and sociology. The topic of the research is mobile habitats, those who live in them and the “road” that is this habitat.
Period : 2012 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Yves Pedrazzini
LASUR team : Maude Reitz, Sophie Greiller, Ferjeux van der Stigghel
Funding / mandator : Forum Vies Mobiles
JobMob II Reversible long-distance mobility in Europe
This research is an extension of JobMobilities and FamilyLives in Europe research, which focused on reversible mobility in Germany, Spain, France and Switzerland in a longitudinal perspective. The people surveyed in these four countries in 2007 were surveyed a second time, which allowed us to create a panel-type database.
Period : 2011 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Emmanuel Ravalet, Stéphanie Vincent, Yann Dubois, Gil Viry (Université d’Edimburgh)
Partnership : Réseau de recherche JobMob
Funding / mandator : Forum Vies Mobiles
Ways of living, mode choice logics and mobility practices in Strasbourg
The research aims to analyzes the thinking behind the modal practices of inhabitants of Strasbourg. The analysis is based on data from the 1997 and 2009 Household Travel Surveys (EMD).
Period : 2014 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Sébastien Munafo, Lorris Tabonne, Yann Dubois
Funding / mandator : ADEUS
Analysis of modal practices in the Sion agglomeration
The research aims to analyze the thinking behind modal practices in the agglomeration of Sion following the implementation of a self-service bike system and a revamped urban public transport offer.
Period : 2014 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Emmanuel Ravalet, Virginie Baranger, Eric Zakhia
Funding / mandator : Ville de Sion, Canton du Valais
Exploring urban speed in a context of slow-oriented urbanism
The research aims to analyze the effects of a change in urban speed in terms of congestion, accessibility and social/territorial cohesion.
Period : 2014 – 2015
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann, Nikolas Geroliminis, François Golay
LASUR team : Derek Christie, Ander Audikana, Sébastien Munafó
Partnership : LUTS, LASIG
Funding / mandator : Incentive ENAC Research Program on urban dimension
Operationalizing human security for livelihood protection: analysis, monitoring and mitigation of existential threats by and for local communities
The project focused on the scientific conceptualization and shift towards the practical use of the concept of human security – individual and population-based – for the definition, early detection and mitigation of vulnerability to the negative effects of global change (syndromes) and local threats–thus the availability and stabilization of sustainable livelihood strategies. Our case studies included Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan and Venezuela.
Period : 2006 – 2014
Project director / coordinator : Albrecht Schnabel (DCAF Geneva)
LASUR team : Yves Pedrazzini
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1, DDC
Spatial fragmentation and social segregation: the public space in Bogota facing mobility challenges
The goal of the research was to analyze the relationship between urban mobility and fragmentation. To do so, we studied their impact on the public space. The research was conducted in Bogota, Colombia because major Latin American cities are facing an accelerated socio-spatial fragmentation process more so than anywhere else in the world.
Period : 2011 – 2014
Project director / coordinator : Yves Pedrazzini
LASUR team : Yafiza Zorro
Partnership : UNIANDES (Université des Andes)
Funding / mandator : FNRS Division 1
Creative mobility state of the art
What do we know about the changes taking placing in our societies as a result of mobility? What can we draw from this past decade, and how can we help research dialogue more effectively with users and artists? This creative, experimental, multidisciplinary state of the art attempts to tackle these questions.
Period : 2012 – 2014
Project director / coordinator : Vincent Kaufmann
LASUR team : Hanja Maksim
Funding / mandator : Forum Vies Mobiles
Lifestyles survey in the Strasbourg urban area
This research, which was based on a large quantitative survey, allowed us to measure the many residential lifestyles present in the Greater Strasbourg area. In close collaboration with the Urban Planning Agency of Strasbourg, it helped create new territorial analysis tools that can take lifestyles into account in urban planning.
Period : 2012 – 2014
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni, Marie-Paule Thomas
LASUR team : Vincent Kaufmann
Partnership : Agence d’Urbanisme de Strasbourg
Funding / mandator : Agence d’Urbanisme de Strasbourg
Residential choices and lifestyles in Geneva agglomeration
This project allowed us to identify and localize the different residential lifestyles present in the Geneva-Vaud agglomeration. Combining quantitative (a sample survey of 2,400 people) and qualitative (in-depth interviews) approaches, the research reflects the dynamics of residential choices and daily practices across the agglomeration. Notably, it helps us better understand the structuring effects of the border.
Period : 2012 – 2014
Project director / coordinator : Luca Pattaroni, Marie-Paule Thomas
LASUR team Hossam Adly, Simon Galloux, Vincent Kaufmann
Funding / mandator : Chambre Genevois Immobilière, Canton de Genève