Towards the urban recovery of disused areas
© 2016 EPFL
Prof. Emmanuel Rey of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) was invited to write a chronic simultaneously broadcast in several Swiss newspapers like Le Nouvelliste, L'Express, L'Impartial and La Côte on the urban recovery of disused areas. His article highlights the strategic dimension of regenerating these areas in the perspective of finding alternatives to urban sprawl and the need to incorporate an evaluation process at several stages of the project, in order to optimally integrate multiple socio-cultural, environmental and economic issues.
The observation of contemporary urban areas shows a singular paradox. If public politics try hard to decrease land consumption and pressure on the landscape by promoting strategies to curb urban sprawl, a significant amount of sites located in the heart of cities and agglomerations remains however abandoned.
These disused areas, former areas of industrial, railway, military or infrastructural activities, nevertheless provide valuable reserves of building land. According to recent estimates, a surface equivalent to twice the size of a city like Geneva currently lies at the heart of urban territories in Switzerland.
Several examples of reconversion projects have highlighted the interest and the relevance of efforts to regenerate disused areas into lively neighborhoods, attractive for housing environment and suitable for the expansion of economic, social and cultural activities. In a perspective of sustainability, the regeneration project should not be limited to the question of density and integrate multiple socio-cultural, environmental and economic dimensions.
Given the complexity of this kind of process, only an evaluation conducted throughout the different stages of the project allows an optimal integration of the multiple issues to be considered. Contributing to this global approach is the objective of several ongoing research projects conducted by the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).