6th International Biennial of Architecture, São Paulo 22/10/2005–11/12/2005
>> conception + production:
jessenvollenweider ARCHITEKTUR Basle/Switzerland: Anna Jessen, Ingemar Vollenweider, Lorenz I. Zumstein, Dirk Haid, Thomas Hielscher, Björn Kowalewsky, Sven Kowalewsky, Roswitha Kötz, Susann Löffler, Anne Prehn, Andreas Putz, Stephanie Winkler
local production+ organisation:
Ottoni Arquitetos Associados, São Paulo Brazil: Cláudio Knapp B. Ottoni >> special thanks go to: Dacio A. B. Ottoni, Sérgio B. Brandão, Katerina Volcov, Caetano De Paula, Fernando R. Zamboim, Priska Heger, Jeannine Matthys, Fernando Fischmann, Julia Jessen
swiscity - visions for the urban territory
One of Switzerland’s key characteristics is a high degree of political and cultural diversity within very small geographical boundaries. Switzerland’s heavily fragmented political structure with 2757 autonomous communities and the principle of regular plebiscites have recently become focus of public attention in Switzerland. In the light of declining economic growth, integral thinking and streamlining of political forces are becoming increasingly important. Switzerland will ultimately have to reconsider its widespread cultivation of land. This process will have a major impact on future goals of urban and national planning. Reviving an idea that has been existing since the sixties, ‘swiscity’ refers to Switzerland as a mega-city stretched between the metropolitan regions of Zurich in the centre, Geneva in the southwest, and Basle at the northern border. These metropolitan regions are tied together by public spaces in the form of forests and agricultural areas. Against a specific Swiss urbanism situated between domesticated nature and suburban cosiness that dissolves the traditional differentiation between built and unbuilt territory, ‘swiscity‘ puts up a distinct hypothesis for a change of paradigm. ‘swiscity’ is proposing a change of attitude spanning a mental model rather than a master-plan.
