NEW CLIMATES IN… LAUSANNE

The initiative, imagined before the pandemic lockdown, but realized during this period and beyond, wants to offer situated moments of debate and co-construction to institutions, professionals, civil servants, citizen associations, students, etc. about local and localized themes which, nevertheless, touch general issues. The climate-as referred to in the title – not only comprises the new temperatures, but also concerns a larger and metaphorical idea of the “atmosphere” which can be supported and encouraged, even constructed, in order to attain the acquired changes and adaptations. Research is carried out in the field, especially when it comes to testing and discussing received ideas. The civic fibres, in which everyone comes together from all different backgrounds, help to weave these necessary links, and thus provide a backdrop in which to project collectively.

As a result, New Climates in… aims to develop a detailed knowledge of the existing situation (geographical and socio-spatial characteristics, current projects, the interplay of actors, current mechanisms, room for manoeuvre, levers for action, potentials, brakes, limits) and, to this end, organises common fields of action, using various and complementary formats, ranging from the sharing of knowledge, visions and readings, to the exploration of imaginary possibilities and prototypes to be implemented.

New Climates Seminars

Upcoming Seminars

24.09.2021

Hidden Rivers #2

Waters Seminar Series

The next New Climates in… Lausanne continues the exploration of Hidden Rivers as an initiative of the Habitat Research Center at EPFL, is planned in collaboration with the Laboratory of Urbanism’s Waters Seminar series, an international exchange platform regarding water environmental issues between scholars and experts across practice and scientific fields. It is planned to take place on September 24, 2021, from 17:00 to19:30pm, online via Zoom.

Urban Hidden Rivers addresses the challenge faced by river courses across urbanized territories. Historically, urban rivers have been a vital resource and link between the inhabitants and the natural environment. However, the increased push towards urbanization and industrialization have resulted in the Anthropocene states of rivers, whereby waters have become diked to prevent floods and channeled for other usage. The modification of natural river courses into more hydraulic infrastructure, has degraded the natural ecological states of water-ecosystems, paradoxically resulting in more severe climate change impacts including microclimate and flood risks.

Through an exchange between issues across social, political, ecological and urban realms, the aim is to reimagine the future of urban rivers, however regenerated, revitalized or otherwise, through the gaze of the multiple actors involved for a more social ecological transition across these territorial rivers.

Previous Seminars

10.06.2021

Hidden Rivers #1

Festival Objectif Terre 2021

We are pleased to invite you to the next session of New Climates in… Lausanne : Hidden Rivers, an initiative of the Habitat Research Center at EPFL in cooperation with the Festival Objectif Terre 2021, which will take place on June 10, 2021, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the Casino de Montbenon in Lausanne.

The public debate “New Climates in… Lausanne : Hidden Rivers” aims at exploring the presence/absence of rivers in the Lausanne region as natural ecosystems, cultural landscapes and hydraulic infrastructures within the city.

Historically, rivers served as a vital resource and as one of the most important links between inhabitants and the natural environment. Nevertheless, due to the push towards industrialization and urbanization across territories, these rivers have become largely channelized and buried, within increasingly fragmented surrounding spaces.

“New Climates in… Lausanne : Hidden Rivers” wishes to (re)open the debate on the presence/absence of hidden rivers in Lausanne’s city-territory. This public debate is an opportunity to rethink the relationship between the city, the valleys and its waterbodies. The question of the continuity within the urban environment shall be addressed as a social, spatial and ecological project. The various aspects of this challenge relates to risk management, to mitigative and adaptive climate change strategies; and to the demographic, social and economic evolution of inhabited and productive spaces.

Interventions

Students of the Bachelor Studio of Prof. Paola Viganò, EPFL
Prof. Giovanni De Cesare, Operational Director, Hydraulic Construction Platform – EPFL
Esteban Rosales, Head of Rivières et ouvrages visitables du service de l’eau – City of Lausanne

Public discussion

With Adriana Rabinovich, Director and Consultant on Urban Planning and Habitat – State of Vaud, Territorial Development Service and Luca Rossi, Urban Hydrologist, Senior Scientific Collaborator, SSIE – EPFL.

There are 50 seats available. The registration is mandatory through the link:

The event will also be streamed live on the Festival’s Facebook and YouTube page.

19.04.2021

Sols urbains II : Vers des initiatives de transformation et valorisation concrètes

In the frame of the mixed-use and diffuse urbanization of the Swiss Plateau, soils have been systematically considered as a reserve. Today, the economic but also spatial and ecological values of this reserve must be redefined in view of the necessary socio-ecological transition of inhabited territories. At the European and Swiss levels, spatial planning policies are promoting increased soil protection, by reorienting development towards existing urban areas that must be densified and restructured. The inward urbanization objective not only puts pressure on urban soils as priority development targets, but also highlights their multifunctionality as a crucial driver for cities’ social-ecological transition.

How can territorial planning, urban and landscape design, but also the daily practices of citizens, actively contribute to the development of urban soil as a resource?

New Climates in… Lausanne shall explore these new questions by sharing experiences on various concrete initiatives, from the regional to the site-specific level: Towards a de-sealing culture in Flanders (Belgium); La Courrouze Master Plan in Rennes (France) and the Stadionbrache garden in Zurich (Switzerland). A discussion open to the public will then address how these concrete initiatives could be transposed into the Lausanne context.

Introduction: Antoine Vialle – EPFL, Lab U ; Habitat Research Center

Interventions

Vers une culture de la réouverture de la déminéralisation des sols en Flandre (Belgium) by Michaël Stas – Department of Urbanism and Landscape, Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) ; Fallow – Practice for architecture, urbanism and landscape
Dessiner les sols de la ZAC de la Courrouze à Rennes (France) by Paola Viganò – EPFL, Lab U ; Habitat Research Center ; Studio Viganò
Transformation spontanée au Stadionbrache à Zurich (Suisse) by Monique Keller – Architect, Journalist and Curator

Moderation: by Monique Keller (Architect, Journalist and Curator) and Antoine Vialle (EPFL, Lab U ; Habitat Research Center)

Watch again:

02.02.2021

Sols urbains I : Redéfinir les valeurs d’une réserve

In the frame of the mixed-use and diffuse urbanization of the Swiss Plateau, soils have been systematically considered as a reserve. Today, the economic but also spatial and ecological values of this reserve must be redefined in view of the necessary socio-ecological transition of inhabited territories. At the European and Swiss levels, spatial planning policies are promoting increased soil protection, by reorienting development towards existing urban areas that must be densified and restructured. The inward urbanization objective not only puts pressure on urban soils as priority development targets, but also highlights their multifunctionality as a crucial driver for cities’ social-ecological transition.

However, urban soils remain largely unknown. What is an urban soil? How can urban/landscape planning and design actively valorize urban soils as a resource?

New Climates in… Lausanne shall explore these new questions by crossing different points of view between public policy, urbanism and soil sciences within the Lausanne-Morges agglomeration.

Introduction: Antoine Vialle (EPFL, Lab U; Habitat Research Center)
Interventions: Benoît Biéler (SDOL)
Fabienne Favre Boivin et Géraldine Bullinger (HEIA-FR)
Moderation: Monique Keller (Architecte, Journaliste et Commissaire d’exposition)

Watch again:

12.10.2020

Habiter la Métropole : Le changement climatique comme catalyseur

The condition of forced domestic isolation, in the context of the health crisis we have been facing in recent months, reminds us of the importance of guaranteeing good conditions of habitability in all different parts of a metropolitan territory. Dispersed, heterogeneous, built by slow accumulations of different spatial capitals, the leman metropolitan territory has been characterized by an increasing polarization of main centers, both in terms of densification and infrastructural facilities.

Today, the polarised construction of the leman metropolitan territory raises questions about its real capacity to support the marginal areas of the Swiss city-territory. To what extent can climate change, which directly affects urban centres, become a lever for rethinking living conditions on a territorial scale, overcoming centre-periphery oppositions and establishing new forms of territorial balance? How can we enhance the forms of urbanity already present in a logic of territorial recycling allowing a better quality of life both ecologically and socially? And finally, how do design practices could evolve according to these different conditions?

Interventions: Prof. David Bresch (ETHZ – MeteoSwiss), Igor Andersen (Urbaplan), Paola Viganò (HRC – Lab-U – EPFL)

Moderation: Tommaso Pietropolli (Lab-U EPFL)

Watch again:

08.06.2020

Corniches : pandémie, littérature et topographie — une lecture

For this second meeting, titled “Corniches: pandemic, literature and topography – a lecture“, we proposed to start from the Corniches Lausannoises (or corniche roads), which include the large paths parallel to the lake and following the topographic contour lines. Corniches are soft mobility that need to be rethought, and which could allow us to put into perspective the themes of walking, topography and landscape, sustainable mobility, public health (in the sense of pandemic management but also the fight against unhealthy lifestyles), etc.

Stretching from East to West, these longitudinal routes offer penetrating points of view towards the lake and the French Alps, they open windows enriching the urban experience for pedestrians and cyclists. These are the privileged spaces, as they require the least amount of effort, are panoramic and offer “narratives”. Used in French, Italian and absorbed by English, the term corniche can also be used to refer to the Corniche du Lavaux, famous for its typical relationship to the great landscape.

This “corniche” theme is considered a strategic issue for the soft mobility of tomorrow, as it is capable of combining the efficiency of a daily route with the pleasure of direct contact with the landscape. The enhancement of these existing routes would thus make it possible to encourage new uses, in terms of modal choices and daily commuting, that are more favourable to human and environmental health (by reducing air and noise pollution at source and reducing dependence on fossil fuels). The rugged topography of the Lausanne conurbation makes these horizontal alignments rarer and more valuable.

Invited speakers:

Matthieu Jaccard – Architecte et historien de l’art indépendant
Ola Söderström – Full Professor of géographie sociale et culturelle, Université de Neuchâtel
Jose Ibarra – ATE Vaud – Association transports et environnement
Derek Christie – Executive Board Habitat Research Center, EPFL; Institute of Global Health, Université de Genève

Discussion:

Caroline Chausson – Cheffe de projet stratégie espaces publics – Ville de Lausanne
Pierre Corajoud – Delegué pietons – Ville de Lausanne
Emmanuelle Bonnemaison – Architecte paysagiste, Bonnemaison-paysage sàrl

Watch again:

04.05.2020

New Climates in… Lausanne – Launching of the Seminar Cycle

The New Climates in… initiative aims to create alliances between local actors from professional, academic, public administration and citizen engagement circles, in order to think transversally across scales and disciplines, regarding spatial projects aspired by climate and structural resilience of our societies. Research is carried out in the field, especially when it comes to testing and discussing received ideas. The civic fibres, in which everyone brings together from all different backgrounds, help to weave these necessary links, and thus provide a backdrop in which to project collectively.

This first meeting was an opportunity to explain the ambitions of this approach and to initiate a dynamic of exchange, conducive to the cultivation of a public debate on our common living environment.