Book Description

This book takes a look at Switzerland in 2048: what will the country look like in 35 years from an architectural, an urbanistic point of view. Extrapolating from figures of the last five years, a population of 15 million people is assumed. Even if growth in population is lower, demographic development will affect and transform the country's inhabitable territory and increase pressure on existing urban and rural areas and infrastructure dramatically. Existing categories, e.g. city, suburb, farmland, or wilderness, will be put to question. Eight years after 'Switzerland: An Urban Portrait', a vast and influential research project carried-out by ETH Studio Basel (part of ETH Zurich), laba's students and teachers have been looking again at Switzerland's present state and present an outlook on urban and spatial developments for the forthcoming 35 years. Besides of abstract analysis of the territorial constitution, the students have designed specific urban interventions that again test the results of that analysis. Research findings and student projects are presented in spectacular graphics and maps, striking images, and plans.