Navigating exhausted landscapes

PENS-321 / 4 crédits

Enseignant(s): Altshuler Ianina, Baudry Jérôme, Ferrari Alessio, Nemec Léonore Juliette Milena

Langue: Anglais

Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Summary

This course focuses on the challenges of transforming urban industrial sites in light of the living dynamics that run through them. It aims to experiment with an interdisciplinary approach through the prism of a shared investigation into their regeneration.

Content

This course proposes to bring together practices from the fields of geotechnics, environmental sciences, and architecture to regenerate a polluted urban environment. Swiss cities have been developing inwardly, and for decades their productive areas have been radically transformed and densified. In the face of our climate emergency, the commonly accepted methods of planning the city through activity zones, aimed at maximizing land profitability, struggle to meet ecological and social imperatives. The overlapping of ecological, social, and economic issues, stratified over time and space, complicates the process of transforming industrial brownfield sites into livable spaces. A comprehensive understanding of the risks and potential of these sites requires a transdisciplinary knowledge involving social and environmental sciences. The quality of soils, largely polluted by past or ongoing industrial activities, is poorly understood, and regeneration processes are incomplete. Urban transformation must therefore be considered within the depth of the critical zone (the interface between the atmosphere and the Earth's continental crust), involving the study of soils, deep and surface waters, and both aerial and underground ecosystems. Global warming necessitates the regeneration of our cities through biodiversity, which requires water and soil management strategies.

In current urban scenarios, production sites are relegated to the fringes of the city, and Third Landscapes (Clément) are doomed to disappear, even though they offer fertile ground for both human and non-human living dynamics. Focusing on the industrial substance of our cities allows us to understand the nature of our heritage and the dominant processes of its preservation, demolition, or transformation. Through observation and description, we will explore the substance of the land and attempt to identify the elements that need to be supported and reinforced. Industrial heritage is burdened with a negative legacy (soil pollution, health risks, groundwater contamination, etc.). These are realities that cannot simply be erased, and whose agency remains difficult to measure, even with current technologies. Addressing these issues in strategies for transforming our living spaces is therefore crucial to better envisioning the future.


This course leverages the methods and tools of environmental sciences to gain a precise understanding of the relevant ecosystems, their interactions, roles, and potentialities. Geotechnics will be employed to delve into the Earth's layers, analyzing soil characteristics and groundwater flows. Urban planning practices will be used to analyze user needs and organize data into coherent narratives. Ecological surveys will be used to assess environmental impacts and considerations of remediating polluted sites. Anthropological practices will aid in developing an ecology of attention (Citton), essential for conducting field investigations. Knowledge from the history of science and technology will provide a perspective on the relationships between tools, discoveries, and representations. The application of scientific methodologies across these four disciplines will help identify, collect, and organize data with the aim of articulating a relevant research and intervention question. Particular attention will be paid to interdisciplinary practices of representation and communication.

Keywords

Urban regeneration, Productivism, Negative commons, Industrial Legacy, Critical zone, Remediation
Groundwaters, Soil, Aboveground and underground ecosystem, Field survey, Territory, Spatial analysis, Traces, Potentialities, Narratives

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Construct an analytical perspective on a situation and a place, adopting a holistic approach to the rhythms and elements that constitute it.
  • Develop an awareness of the relationship between the recording tool, the observed object, and the collected data.
  • Assemble , prioritize, and structure information to build a narrative.
  • Identify the components of a site that are essential for its survival and require support, protection, or reinforcement.
  • Formulate strategies for transforming a space in order to anticipate its future state, taking into account its negative commons.
  • Develop a project proposal, with a focus on effectively using representational and communication skills to clearly convey an idea.

Transversal skills

  • Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
  • Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.
  • Identify the different roles that are involved in well-functioning teams and assume different roles, including leadership roles.
  • Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.

Teaching methods

The semester will be structured around fieldwork sessions, theoretical lectures, group practical workshops, and thematic seminars. Additionally, the analysis of targeted scientific and philosophical texts related to the themes addressed will encourage the development of a critical perspective. Students will work in groups.

 

Interdisciplinarity:

The learning framework will enable students to develop and share research processes in a transdisciplinary manner. From the very beginning of the semester, with the aim of formulating a common problematic, students will be required to experiment together with investigative procedures in a defined territory, drawing on the knowledge from their discipline, as well as the associated tools and methodologies. The holistic analysis required for the field study will allow each student to contribute their knowledge, deepen it, and apply it in a complex multidisciplinary context, while becoming aware of the issues relevant to other disciplines. The objective is to consider the transformation of our common spaces through the notion of the "critical zone", involving knowledge from geotechnics, the history of science and technology, as well as environmental, social, and urban sciences. A dialogue between disciplines will be necessary throughout the semester to experiment with methods of representing and telling a story of the collected data.

Expected student activities

Each group of students will develop a holistic vision for the site, which will include concrete proposals and strategies for a livable neighborhood - drawing on the concept of a guiding image (urban design). The format of the presentation will be selected based on the theme and the skills of the group members (text, report, model, drawing, film, audio, etc.). The speculative vision should aim to reveal the potential of the site, whether visible or invisible. Proactive participation in classes, workshops, and work sessions, both individually and collectively, is expected throughout the semester.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be ongoing throughout the semester. Two workshop presentations will provide opportunities to share and collectively refine group work. The final projects will be presented and discussed collectively at the end of the semester, based on the following criteria:

 

  • Ability to conduct field research
  • Capacity to identify and organize scientific data to construct a narrative
  • Aptitude to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, while maintaining the specificity of one's discipline
  • Quality of proposals and presentation formats

Resources

Moodle Link

Dans les plans d'études

  • Semestre: Printemps
  • Forme de l'examen: Pendant le semestre (session d'été)
  • Matière examinée: Navigating exhausted landscapes
  • Cours: 1 Heure(s) hebdo x 12 semaines
  • Projet: 3 Heure(s) hebdo x 12 semaines
  • Type: optionnel

Semaine de référence

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