Show tags

May 29th, 2010

RETHINKING CHAUX

Workshop for teams selected from the winners of EUROPAN 10, on a new urban development in Chaux de Fonds.

With Paolo Iotti (It)  http://www.iotti-pavarani.com/  and Michael Klein (At).

Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland, 25-29.05.2010

 

In the workshop for winning entries of Europan 10, it was put to several teams to in intervene in three separate parts of the surrounding area.  The team made up of Paolo Iotti, Michael Klein and Enrique Arenas was presented with the challenge of city growth to the west of Chaux-de-Fonds, in an area where the access road to the city crossed the train line. A place where wood industries were traditionally located, but have now fallen into disuse.

The most important question that we faced was how to connect the neat and tidy urban planning of the traditional city fabric of Chaux, Junod’s mesh, with the current method of action. Now the city grows like an archipelago, like islands, they are arranging objects that compete amongst themselves, without generating neither a fabric, nor a definitive idea of the city.

chaux01WEB

For this purpose we proposed, what we call, “urban self-service”. A strategy in which the traditional fabric is adapted to the current needs, in an open process not-previously designed. With some minimal guidelines, each inhabitant can choose freely the method and place in which to build, and they can build a city too.

chaux02WEB