Foundation Studio II: Landscape Architecture & the City

22. July 2020 Cara Turett

e-pics, ETH Zürich, Swissairarchiv

Instructors

Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard
Prof. Günther Vogt

The Foundation Studio II is organized into two design tasks, each with a different focus on content and methodology.

1^st part: Biel-Bern-Thun

The first part of the course introduces landscape architecture design on a territorial scale. The students develop a project based on the perception of place, knowledge of landscape-architectonic typologies and conception of public space. The task consists in the redefining of the meaning and use of the landscape within the urban configuration of Biel-Bern-Thun. At this junction of urbanized Switzerland, the three primary landscape types (Jura, Mittelland, Alps) come together. Their transformation is characterized by centralization and the expansion of urban sprawl (city network Bern), developments along the transit axes (Genève-St. Gallen / Bern-Thun), the partial withdrawal of use (Alpine fallow land) and simultaneous intensification of agriculture (Valleys and Mittelland).

In a first step, we examine the large-scale relations. On a field trip we supplement the analytical view with a personal view of the place. From this the students develop an individual program as a basis for their design. With this approach we understand design not as an end product, but as a process, which is about making the individual steps visible and recording them.

2^nd part: Zurich

By looking at Zurich through the lens of water, climate, soil, and plants the second half of the studio develops a language for translating the landscape and discovering new opportunities for design. The aim is for students to develop a design proposal in Zurich that uncovers new potentials for the city through an analysis of the dynamics of water. Using drawing-based investigations, each project will identify a transformative potential in a living system and make a design proposal that augments that potential.

Students will analyze the topography, drainage, soil, climate in the urban condition and territory of Zurich. They will produce maps of the city and its watershed, and this investigation will generate a more specific zone of intervention that will be analyzed in greater depth. By the end of the studio the students will produce a series of drawings that describe their design proposals.