Alps as Process - engaging montane switzerland as an operating urban ecology by Daia Stutz

ALPS AS PROCESS engaging montane switzerland as an operating urban ecology

Independent Thesis Daia Paco Stutz Steppacher Pierre BĂŠlanger, Assoc. Prof. of Landscape Architecture, Advisor Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design Graduate School of Design, Harvard University Spring 2013

Image source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Advisor Pierre BĂŠlanger for his exceptional support and engagement during this thesis year. His thoughtful inputs and provocative perspectives on Switzerland have brought this project much further than ever expected. Thanks to his advice, I had the chance to significantly advance my thinking about my own country and profession as well as my skills in representing and formulation urban territories. Furthermore, I would like to thank GĂźnther Vogt, Neil Brenner and Laurent Stalder for their invaluable intellectual contribution to this work, SwissNex Boston for financial support, Leo Fabrizio, Switzerland Tourism and the National Forest Inventory for providing high-quality images. Lastly, my greatest thank goes to my parents who have enabled me to pursue this studies and to my dearest Lisa for her endless support and love during this year. 2

Abstract

The Alps are an urban territory in transformation. Affected by significant changes in climate conditions, penetrated by heavy infrastructural intensification, upgraded through a concentrated real-estate boom and simultaneously overtaken by spreading wilderness and forests that reclaim the abandoned cultivated lands and shrinking villages. Driven by the logics of international tourism, the increased need for energy and capital flow as well as natural disaster prevention, these phenomena stand for the variety of different urban processes that are currently shaping and pressing on the European Alps. As new yet indispensable dynamics, they heavily question the predominant static and isolated image of the picturesque and natural alpine landscapes as well as the conservation and preservation efforts behind them. Through the lens of the new trans-alpine rail tunnel in Switzerland, a mega-project of unprecedented scale and impact, the aim of this thesis project is to radically rethinking the Alps not only as an thoroughly urbanized and artificial territory in transition, but as an operating urban ecology itself where processes of urbanization, de-urbanization, growth and shrinkage become the programmatic vectors of a systemic and flexible design approach. 3

Contents

1 Background: The Alps - an urban territory in transformation

Alpine Resorts, Fallow Land & Climate Change dynamic forces pressing on alpine regions

From Underground to Peak infrastructural intensification in the alps

Conservation & Preservation the picturesque as a construct 2 Hypothesis: Changing relationship to Ground

from Static to Progressive rethinking the image of the alps 3 Case Study: The Alptransit Gotthard Base Tunnel

AlpTransit scales of an urban mega-project

Urbanized Surfaceschallenging the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;invisibilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of underground infrastructures 4 Excursus Underground Urbanization

Colonizing the Underground a history of bunkers, tunnels & repositories

Subsurface Developments scales and dimensions of a global phenomena

Significance challenges of mineral flows 5 Project Statement:

Alps as Process 6 Design Project:

98 130

The Surselva as an operating urban ecology 7 Endnotes 5

Image source: Daia Stutz, March 2013.

1 background

the alpsan urban territory in transformation

Image source: Google Earth Pro 8

alpine resorts, fallow land & climate change dynamic forces pressing on alpine regions As a multi-national system of valleys and peaks, lakes and rivers, towns and cities, embedded within complex networks of roads, railways, tunnels, pipes, hydropower plants, ski installations and other infrastructures of flows and connections, the Alps represent a highly constructed and artificial yet divers and vulnerable territory that serves the surrounding metropolitan regions as a major source for energy, water, leisure and ‘nature’. In contrast to the symbolic conception of the Alps as the ‘antithesis to the city’,1 the sheer intensity of mobility and energy infrastructures which both penetrate and take advantage of the extreme topographies depict an image of the Alps as a highly urbanized territory. Discussions and controversies around the paradoxicality of this alpine urbanity have been engaging the urban discourse in Switzerland for decades, yet there is a common agreement amongst various scholars and theorists that the Alps can no longer be separated from national, continental or even global processes of urbanization. Especially the ‘Urban Portrait Switzerland’ by the ETH Studio Basel in 2003 has empirically examined and precisely described Switzerland as an thoroughly urbanized landscape in which the Alps represent one distinctive part of a much larger, nation-wide ‘Urban Topography’.2 The authors even argue that some alpine tows have ever since been more urban than many lowland cit-

ies, as international tourism and alpine transit routes have connected them to the cosmopolitan world.3 In a similar way, ‘Urbanscape Switzerland’ by Angelus Eisinger and Michel Schneider highlights the ‘high degree of cohesion between town and countryside’4 in Switzerland and the great accessibility of the Alps, where activities and life-styles are no longer much different to those in major cities. Furthermore, the study even puts the Alps on a par with ‘city’ and envisions the Alps as Europe’s ‘Park City’ or ‘Energy City’ as possible future urban scenarios.5 Indeed, the boundaries between city and landscape, urban and rural have been blurred long ago, and despite the fuzziness of the term ‘urban’ in this context, it becomes evident that the Swiss Alps are urban, in whatever sense. At this point in time, however, the Alps are subject to even larger urban transformations that are happening on the European if not global scale. A whole series of different dynamic forces are pressing on the Alps in various ways and thoroughly shifting the territorial relationships while reorganizing the urban geography of the mountainous terrain. Among the various processes at work, three distinctive and at first sight paradoxical vectors can be identified: Concentrated real-estate boom, abandonment and climate change. 9

Renderings and Masterplan for the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Andermatt Swiss Alpsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; resort in Andermatt, Switzerland. Source: Andermatt Swiss Alps, retrieved from http://www.andermatt-swissalps.ch/

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foreign capital alpine resorts concentrated real-estate boom In the last couple of years, Switzerland has experienced a significant influx of foreign capital into mountainous regions to establish high-end touristic resorts and respective facilities.6 From St. Moritz to Gstaad, the demand for luxurious tourism in picturesque sceneries in relation to the high level of accessibility and capital mobility have led to an concentrated real-estate boom financed by international investors. Whole villages are turned into Alpine resorts that are completely focused on tourism and related service industries. Farmland is turned into Golf Courses, Swiss Chalets are scaled up to Wellness-Hotels while fancy holiday homes cluster along the sunny slopes. The most extreme example of this phenomena is the ‘Andermatt Swiss Alps’ development in Andermatt in the Canton of Uri. Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris invests 1,5 bio Swiss Franks into the construction of 6 Hotels, 450 luxury apartments, 30 Villas and a 18-hole Golf Course.7 The buildings

are designed by numerous international architects – including a team from Kuala Lumpur – who literally double the village in its size and scale up the Swiss Chalets to quite voluminous urban blocks. It marks the ultimate economical shift from agriculture to industrialization to capitalization, where the landscape scenery alone is the major commodity being produced and sold. This is somewhat paradoxical, as ‘tourism with its access roads and crowded housing is undermining the very landscape on which it depends.’8 However, the upscaling and reinterpretation of alpine villages injects an interesting new urban atmosphere into the quiet valleys. At the same time, given the spatial concentration, scale and pace of these developments and the immense contrasts that they evoke, they stand for a new dynamic force that fosters uneven spatial development in the Alps even more.

Wild forests and golf courses take over fallow land. Sedrun, Switzlerand, 2012. Source: Image retrieved from http://talusha.3bb.ru/viewtopic.php?id=2984

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wilderness the urban bear? fallow land - from meadows & pasture to forests & wilderness In stark contrast to the concentrated realestate boom, the Swiss Alps are heavily affected by a widespread abandonment of farmland and meadows as well as depopulation of villages. Economic pressures, structural shifts and technological progress have forced farmers to give up traditional ways of cultivating alpine meadows and pastures long ago, leading to natural reforestation and proliferation of wilderness. In average, the area of alpine forests has naturally grown by 10% in the last decade, taking over large plots of fallow land.9 Interestingly, it is seen as a ‘serious problem’ by many people, especially by environmentalists and traditionalists, who bemoan the loss of cultural landscapes as well as biodiversity.10 To a great extend though, this is mainly an issue of mindsets and values, representing the somewhat schizophrenic relationship of Swiss people towards the forest. At the same time, wild animals such as wolfs, bears and lynxes are returning to the Alps, taking advantage of the spread-

ing wilderness. According to WWF, eight wild bears have entered Switzerland from Italy since 2006, but their long-term resettlement has not been successful yet.11 On February 1, 2013, authorities shut the only remaining wild brown bear named ‘M13’, who became famous as the ‘problem bear’ after killing hundreds of sheep and consistently entering villages in search of food.12 The shooting of the bear caused many controversies between people from the cities (who wanted the bear alive) and people from the mountains (who wanted it dead), reflecting the moralistic discussions around the issue of ‘nature’ and the many dilemmas evoked by this new clash of wilderness and urbanization. However, if we understand the return of the wild bears as a result of abandonment - and therefore as a result of urban processes they should not be seen as a symbol for the return of nature, but rather as a symbol for an new kind of alpine urbanity. 13

Growth of Forest and Village between 1899 und 2005 in Silvaplana, Grisons. Source: Simon Speich, WSL

Wild Bear ‘M13’ prowling around the village of Ramusch in Grisons, Switzerland, May 2012. Source: Screenshot from Swiss Television, SRF. Accessed April 20, 2013.

Rockfall hitting a Bus in Vinadi, Switzerland on March 30 2012. Source: Cantonal Police of Grisons, retrieved from: http://www.gr.ch/DE/institutionen/verwaltung/djsg/kapo/aktuelles/medien/2012/Seiten/201203301.aspx

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climate change loose grounds - melting permafrost, increased erosion and new species The Alps are severely affected by climate change. As a complex hydrological and geological system and extreme topographic terrain, the impacts of global warming on the Alps are exponentially higher than in any other European region. According to the European Environment Agency, the temperatures in the Alps is increasing more than twice the global average, leading to permafrost thawing, glacier melting and severe changes in the hydrological cycles.13 ‘Regional climate models project continuously rising temperatures for the Alps up until the end of the 21st century (between + 2.6 °C and + 3.9 °C). (…) Precipitation in winter will increasingly fall as rain rather than snow, leading to fewer days with snow cover. Corresponding with these changes, increase in winter run-off and decrease in summer run-off will be enhanced.’14 As a result, alpine grounds have become extremely loose and dynamic, causing avalanches, landslides, mudslides, rockfalls,

Landslide in Randa, Switzerland. Source: Wikipedia, retrieved from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergsturz_Randa.JPG

European Larch (Larix decidua)

Holm Oak (Quercus ilex)

Pine (Pinus sylvestris / nigra)

European Spruce (Picea Abies)

Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica)

European Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Douglas Fir (Pseudotzuga menziesii)

Eucalyptus (Eucalyptsu spec.)

mass movements and debris flows to occur more often and in more voluminous forms. Devastating catastrophes with fatal accidents, overwhelmed traffic routes and demolished buildings are therefore likely to increase in the future, while the prevention and prediction of natural disasters is becoming more and more difficult. Besides concentrated rainfall and less snow, there will also be more frequent and intense heat waves as well as droughts not only effecting hydrological systems, habitats, formations of forests and agricultural land in the long term, but also amplifying the probability of forest fires. This in turn will aggravate problems with torrents and erosion even more.15 Fire, usually associated with mediterranean climates or only with dry valleys in the Swiss Valais, ‘will most likely become a major forming agent in the Alps’.16 Furthermore, the vegetative structure of the Alps is most likely to undergo significant changes, as predominant Spruce forests are being pushed back by more drought resistant trees (Oak, Pine, Fir) or being replaced by more ‘productive’ trees including Mediterranean species better adapted to warmer climates (Beech, Douglas Fir, Atlas Cedar, Eucalyptus).17 On the whole, the much warmer and more extreme weather conditions will not only bring a certain mediterranean touch to the mountains and significantly change the traditional alpine scenery, but will also accelerate any form of flux and movement that ultimately sheds a highly dynamic view on the Alps.

Mudslide in Spreitgraben, Switzerland. Source: Geotest, retrieved from: http://www.geotest.ch

Construction site for a slope stabilization in Gurtnellen, Switzerland. Source: Geotest, retrieved from: http://www.geotest.ch

from underground to peak infrastructural intensification in the alps All of the three dynamic forces outlined above do not only trigger a series of processes that mark a significant change in land use and landscape patterns, but also lead to unprecedented upgrading of various kinds of infrastructures. Going hand in hand with capacity constraints in transportation of people and goods as well as increasing demands for renewable energy sources, the Alps are experiencing a significant intensification of mobility, energy, sports as well as all sorts of protective infrastructures. This includes the expansion of roads, bridges, ski-lifts and gondolas to alpine resorts and mountain peaks, as winter sports has to take place on higher altitudes where artificial snow can resist the warmer climate. Furthermore, natural disasters in relation to climate change have led to an unprecedented financial and political effort to fix, stabilize and control erosive slopes and flooding streams. Dams, avalanche protection and deflection barriers, earth anchors, rockfall nets and many other constructions are being installed to undermine the fluid processes at work. A whole series of new policies on the national and international level are being set up to develop ‘robust adaptation strategies’,18 following a clearly technocratic and engineer-driven approach in favor of a controlled, fixed and overplanned alpine environment.

Most significant about this new cycle of infrastructural upgrading though is the development of underground mega-projects which lie beyond the scope of anything before. This includes the AlpTransit Gotthard Base Tunnel, a high-speed rail link to be investigated in more detail later, and the Linthtal 2015 Pumped Storage Plant, the largest hydro power plant in Europe.19 Both projects are currently under construction and represent the largest of their kind. In the long history of large alpine infrastructures, they clearly mark a new era in terms of size and complexity. Furthermore, they stand for the strong tendency of underground developments to be currently observed on a global scale (see following chapters). To a great extend, this infrastructural intensification in the Alps ties into the controversial logics of efficiency and control through centralized infrastructures and the prevalent division between living and non-living systems. It is surprising that despite the great dynamism characterizing the Alps as well as the vulnerability, inherit limits and flaws of technocratic infrastructures, Switzerland is taking the risky path of building more and more centralized mega-projects. The problematique of the complexity and dynamic character of urban systems (including the Alps) vis-à-vis centralized, isolated and mono-functional

infrastructures as the organizational skeleton of cities has been criticized by urban theorists, planners and designers alike. According to Pierre Bélanger, for example, the dominance of civil engineering - derived from military practices of controlling and ordering space - ‘oversimplified the ecology of urban economies and underplayed the social role of urban infrastructures, by way of marginalizing and suppressing the living, biophysical systems’,20 ultimately creating vulnerable systems which increasingly end up in devastating ‘infrastructural disasters and technological accidents’ (flooding, collapses, outages).21 In a similar way, but from a different perspective, Danish economic geographer Bent Flyvbjerg sheds a shattering light on the political and economical mechanism behind Mega-projects. His empirical study and statistical analysis of various transportation and energy Mega-projects throughout Europe ‘is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects.’22

North Portal of the AlpTransit Gotthard Base Tunnel in Erstfeld, Switzerland. Source: Daia Stutz, July 2012.

Masterplan for the new Ski-Arena between Andermatt and Sedrun, Switzerland. Source: The Andermatt Gallery, retrieved from: http://ag-andermatt.blogspot.com/2013/04/updated-ski-master-plan-released.html

Construction of underground cavern for the Linthtal 2015 Pumped Storage Plant, Linth, CH. Avalanche Deflection Barrier in Pontresina, Switzerland. Source: Axpo, retrieved from: http://www.axpo.com/axpo/ch/en/axpo-erleben/linthal-2015.html Source: GraNat, retrieved from:http://www.gra-nat.ch/

AlpTransit spoil processing plant, Faido, Switzerland. Source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

AlpTransit spoil processing plant, Sedrun, Switzerland. Source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

AlpTransit installation plant, Bodio, Switzerland. Source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

Constructions around the AlpTransit North Portal, Erstfeld, Switzerland. Source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

Image source: Switzerland Tourism 28

Conservation & Preservation the picturesque as a construct Following Bélanger’s and Flyvbjerg’s argumentation, there is hardly any fundamentally sound reason to develop large-scale infrastructures, neither from an economical or environmental, nor from an social perspective. The only reason for these project to happen seem to be the unbroken belief in growth and speed, driven by neoliberal capitalist logics. A more detailed examination of the drivers behind and the outcomes of the Alptransit case will follow in the next chapter. The infrastructural intensification in the Alps is further a very paradoxical undertaking in the sense that it simultaneously tries to undermine (dams, barriers, anchors) and foster (roads, rails, lifts) dynamic flows of people and goods. As a counter-reaction, there is a strong political will - backed up by the Swiss people and the Tourism industry - to maintain and preserve the Alpine landscape in its current state. The well-known ‘Heidi-Landscape’ with meadows and cows, lakes, Spruce-forests and the omnipresent silhouette of the Alps are deeply embedded in the Swiss culture and its relationship to the mountainous territory. A whole series of instruments, regulations and laws have been set up in an effort to stop the dynamic transformation and to keep the alpine landscape in a fixed state. The Swiss Government is paying around 2,8

bio. CHF (around 3 bio. USD) 23 each year to farmers for maintaining agricultural land and for so-called ‘ecological compensations’. With this controversial agricultural policy, the landscape is artificially kept in a status quo, neglecting and negating the economic and environmental forces transforming it. Alpine farmers have become nothing else then landscape gardeners. The tourism industry, in a similar way, is promoting and portraying the image of a natural and pristine landscape with ‘magical, unspoilt nature all around’ or ‘pure nature’.24 ‘Nature’, whatever that means, is the major capital of Swiss Tourism especially in the Alps, which paradoxically draws more international tourists into the region, with infrastructural and real estate growth to follow, stressing the very landscape it is dependent on. On the same line, Switzerland is setting up a series of new National Parks, Regional Nature Parks and Nature Discovery Parks to both preserve Nature while selling it as a tourist attraction. The labeling of particular landscapes for protection and promotion purposes with instruments such as the ‘Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance’25 has become sort of an alleged compensation machinery for the destructive urbanization processes happening in the Alps. On the juridicial level, too, new policies and laws have been recently set

up to protect and preserve cultural landscapes. In spring 2012, Swiss voters have decided that ‘in every commune where at least 20 % of homes are second homes, no more second homes may be built’26 as a response to the unprecedented and undamped real estate boom with sprawling ‘ghost towns’ during low season. Furthermore, a similar effort to respond to urban sprawl and to protect traditional sceneries in Switzerland was the ‘cultural landscape initiative’, accepted by the public earlier this year. The initiative demanded ‘that the total area of building land may not be expanded over the next two decades’,27 forcing many projects in the pipeline to be stopped and revised. On the whole, it becomes clear that the picturesque as such is a highly constructed and artificially maintained scenery. Given the new dynamism of the Alps, this is quite problematic and dangerous. The fixed and static view of landscape promoted by all these different instruments are inherently wrong, as they refer to an outdated image of nature or cultural landscape that does no longer exist. There is generally a lack of an urban understanding let alone an urban identity of the Alps, which hinders any advancement and reinterpretation of the Alps towards a 21st century mountainous urban landscape.

law on forests (*1876)

fixation of forest area, ban of clearences, regulation of timber harvesting, subsidies for reforestation.

livestock & milk production subsidies

Image source: Switzerland Tourism

Laws & Regulations

the fixed landscape

Subsidies agriculture subsidies: switzerland spends 3 bio USD of ‘direct payments’ and ‘ecological compensation’ to farmers for maintaining agricultural land.

Labels & Inventories federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments of national importance: establishment of 21 national parks, regional nature parks and nature discovery parks in the last decades.

zoning restrictions: ‘second home ban’ & ‘cultural landscape initiative’

Image source: Switzerland Tourism

Perimeter of the Alpine Convention

alpine conventiondevelopment & conservation On the international level, several governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as agreements are promoting a slightly more advanced, but still rather conservative image of the Alps. The major concerns are economical development and environmental protection, while the urban identity of the Alps is rarely addressed.28 The Alpine Convention, an international treaty between the Alpine countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and Switzerland) as well as the European Union, has successfully portrayed the Alps as a multi-national territorial system, but is still mainly concerned with the preservation and conservation of alpine landscapes. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The objective of the treaty is to protect the natural environment of the Alps while promoting its sustainable development and protecting the interests of the people living within it. It embraces the environmental, social, economic and cultural dimensions.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;29

Image source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

2 hypothesis

changing relationship to ground

rethinking the image. Image source: Switzerland Tourism

from static to progressive - rethinking the image of the Alps

Based on the underlying background research on dynamic pressures in the Alps, as well as the findings from the following chapter on the AlpTransit Gotthard Rail Tunnel, this thesis project is based on the following Hypothesis: Given the various dynamic processes at work, leading to major shifts in the way alpine land is used and occupied, coupled with the massive underground infrastructural development happening at a unprecedented scale, the way we interact and engage with the ground - and therefore the relationship to ground - has changed. As argued later, the ongoing urbanization of the Swiss Alps are an extreme example of how underground constructions and related landscape operations have reached unprecedented dimensions. This calls for a radical change in the way we look at and understand the Alps. There is a pressing need to go away from a fixed and static view towards an understanding of the Alps as an operating, working, ever-changing, progressive landscape in flux.

Image source: Daia Stutz, AlpTransit Gotthard Base Tunnel, July 2012.

3 case study

the alptransit gotthard base tunnel switzerland

The Swiss National Railway Company (SBB) is currently constructing the world’s largest and deepest tunnel in the world. The 57 km long Gotthard Base Tunnel, mainly referred to as the AlpTransit, connects the northern and southern Plateaus of Switzerland via a flat route through the entire alpine range. The project is part of the European High Speed Rail Network and represents a major component in the trans-alpine freight and passenger traffic, whose capacity is going to be tripled through the project.30 As such, it is a highly political and international urban development, as it stands for the EU’s agenda to foster cargo transportation between the major metropolitan regions in the North (Rotterdam, Paris, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt) and South (Milano, Rome) via rail. Switzerland, strategically located in the middle of Europe and in the heart of the Alps, takes this opportunity to lift its mobility infrastructure to a new dimension in terms of scale, capacity and impact. The Alptransit Gotthard Base Tunnel is Switzerland’s largest-ever construction project.31 It is part of the NRLA, the New Rail Link through the Alps, consisting of the two base tunnels through the Gotthard and Ceneri as well as their connections to existing railway lines. The flat route shortens the distance from Basel to Chiasso by 40 km with a maximum gradient of only 12 per thousand, substantially less than the old Gotthard mountain route (26 per

2.3 km / 1.4 miles

AlpTransit scales of an urban megaproject

57 km / 35 miles

10 miles

The AlpTransit Tunnel and the HSR-link in relation to the alpine mountain range.

alptransit HSR-link

sectional view towards east.

thousand).32 Also, passenger journey times are shortened substantially, as Passenger trains can travel at speeds of up to 250 km/h. In total, around a quarter more passenger trains will travel on the north-south axis than today. More importantly though is the fact that the elimination of height differences allows more goods trains to pass, with a new capacity of 220 to 260 trains per day, each reaching an average length of 750 m length and 2,000 tons loads. This increases the annual transport capacity from around 20 million tons today to around 50 million tons,33 marking a new era in trans-alpine cargo traffic. The majority of the goods trains will travel via Luino to the loading terminals in northern Italy, the rest will enter Italy via Chiasso. As far as the north-west connections are concerned, around one third of the cargo trains will travel via Basel to Antwerp. The other two thirds travel via Basel to the major industrial centers of Germany, the sea port of Rotterdam, or Scandinavia. A small proportion serve the Rhine port at Basel.34 Source: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd.: AlpTransit Gotthard. New Traffic Route through the Heart of Switzerland.

10 miles 43

Cargo Corridors the missing link On a continental scale, it becomes clear that the new AlpTransit tunnel represents the missing link of the European high-speed rail network along the crucial Rotterdam â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Genoa freight corridor. As part of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), the EU is currently setting up a series of Trans-European Networks (TENs) to foster â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the smooth functioning of the internal market and the strengthening of economic and social cohesionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.35 Within this political agenda which promotes largescale transportation infrastructures, the High-Speed Rail Network plays the most important part as a strategic connection of the major economic hubs and trading ports throughout the continent. As such, it is representative for a highly uneven spatial development strategy, as only the major economic hubs are being connected whereas the rest is being bypassed or left aside (for example Eastern Europe). Furthermore, it is interesting to see that the high speed and the flatness of the Alptransit basically make the Alps disappear, at least from a transportation perspective. This vision, however, is obviously an illusion and only works on a very large scale. If one zooms in, the smooth stroke becomes a very thickened line which heavily interacts with existing conditions on the ground.

creative destruction The urban processes triggered by this new tunnel are fascinating by itself, as they have immense impacts on the territorial relationships and interdependencies on a local, regional, national and continental scale. The rescaling and reorganizing of the alpine territory through the Alptransit tunnel, and most importantly the dual and paradoxical effects it has on very specific local urbanization processes within the Alps shall be further elaborated here. Given the massive technological and logistical material effort behind this Mega-project, the multitude of dynamic processes and societal, economical and ecological implications are far-reaching and multi-facetted. First of all, the new tunnel is heavily interacting with existing infrastructures. It is a perfect example of creative destruction, as the old tunnel is replaced and becomes totally redundant. Furthermore, as it bypasses (or lets say traverses underground) a big part of the Alps, the accessibility of many valleys and towns is being changed, for the better and the worse. Since the tunnel with benefit only specific locations, whereas other are being left aside, it fosters the uneven spatial development of the Alps. Consequently, it supports the very processes with are in progress anyway, namely concentrated real-estate boom, abandonment and infrastructural intensification.

sarnen

wassen interlaken andermatt

existing rail tunnel

airolo railways roads

ski-lifts

altdorf

chur

erstfeld

new tunnel

sedrun

faido

biasca

reshuffling hydrological systems Moreover, the Alptransit heavily intervenes into existing hydrological systems. Given its enormous depth with maximum rock overburden of 2,3 kilometers,36 the tunnel will most likely have enormous impacts on groundwater flows and aquifers. As the construction is still ongoing, the long term effects are still to be awaited. However, the tunnel traverses three different watersheds (Rhine, Rhone and Ticino) and a complex hydrological system with rivers, streams, lakes and dams on the surface. According to the Alptransit engineers, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;any tunnel drive in water-saturated, jointed rock will have an effect on the groundwater conditions as formation water flows out from the rock masses into the cavity created by excavation. The hydrostatic pressure in the joints of the rock mass will be lowered and the effective stress on the joint surfaces will increase. This effect leads to a closing of the joint spaces. When integrated over a greater distance this closing effect leads to a detectable deformation of the mountainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.37 In other words, the Gotthard Massif is both drained and most likely to be shifted by the tunnel. Because of this, the shape of the tunnel has been determined by three existing dams on the surface 2000 meters above, as engineers were worried about possible damages on the dams.38

ground-water flows watershed borders reservoirs / dams

rivers & streams

Alptransit Rail Tunnel

draining heat

sarnen

waste-water treatment plant Given the size of the Alptransit tunnel, it is little surprising that the amount of mountain water being drained out of the tunnel is more than significant. On the south portal in Bodio only, 80 to 460 liters of warm water are flowing out of the tunnel per second. The water has a temperature of 30-35 degree Celsius and is used to heat nearby villages.39 Putting this staggering amount of water in context with the numerous hydropower plants, transmission lines and water treatment plants located in the same region, it is fascinating to understand the new tunnel as just another energy and wastewater infrastructure in an already highly infrastructuralized territory.

wassen interlaken andermatt

reservoirs / dams

transmission lines

power plants

altdorf

chur

erstfeld

Alptransit Rail Tunnel

sedrun

faido

biasca

multiculturalism From a societal perspective, the Alptransit is quite a multicultural project. It crosses through three different language regions – Italian, German and Rhaeto-Romanic – divided into various politically autonomous communes. This cultural dimension to the project is interesting because the tunnel is actually only running from the German to the Italian part of Switzerland, whereas the Rhaeto-Romanic part in the middle of the Alps is solely connected through an excavation and ventilation shaft, which paradoxically has had a major impact on the village and the whole valley it is located in. A large spoil processing plant, temporary workers homes and landfills have characterized this particular village – called Sedrun – for the last decade. Plans to turn the ventilation shaft into a permanent station – and therefore allow the village of Sedrun to benefit from the Alptransit in the long term by being connected to the European High Speed Rail Network have been developed. The people in the valley and many supporters are actively advocating the so-called ‘Porta Alpina’ (‘Alpine Gate’), but technological and financial burdens have led to the political decision not to realize it in the near future. However, the project is most likely to be constructed at some point in the future, as soon as the funding is secured. It would have a major impact on the whole inner-alpine region, as it would link it to major cities like Zurich or Milano in less than 2 hours.40 52

sarnen

german wassen interlaken andertmatt rhaeto-romanic language region german language region italian language region

urban footprints communal borders

altdorf

erstfeld

Alptransit Rail Tunnel

chur

rhaetoromanic

village of sedrun

italian

biasca

lak

UNESCO biosphere entlebuch

the eco paradox The Alptransit tunnel is further running below or next to many different national parks and protected sites. What seems legitimate at first sight is actually very paradoxical. As argued later, the Alptransit tunnel is not necessarily very ecological â&#x20AC;&#x201C; on the contrary â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and has major impact on the very surfaces it is traversing. It seems contradictory and to some extend antagonistic that Switzerland is trying to protect and preserve the surfaces while heavily urbanizing the ground below it. The preservation of landscapes by simply locating infrastructure in the underground below them is a wide-spread illusion which this research is aimed to disclose.

hohgant

giessbach

national parks / landscapes protected through ILNM (Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance)

gelteniffigen 54

berne high alps & aletsch-bietschhorn region

binntal

silberen

ke lucern region

maderanertal /fellital

alptransit rail tunnel

greina-piz medel lag da toma

piora-lucomagno-dรถtra posterior rhine spring

tencia-piumogna

val bavona

val verzasca 55

Spoil Processing & Logistics â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Some 28 mio t of spoil will be excavated during the construction of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The material is divided up over the 5 part sections Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, Faido and Bodio. Given these quantities, detailed proof of material management that took the environment, space and resources into consideration was a central aspect during the construction approval proceedings.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;41 The sheer amount of materials that are being used and especially the huge amount of rock that is being excavated, processed, transported, recycled and dumped posed enormous spatial and organizational problems. From the 28.2 mio t of excavated rock, about 33% of it was suitable for recycling. After processing 23% or 6.5 mio t of the total spoil were reused as aggregates for concrete production. 66% or 18.6 mio tons of the total spoil were defined unsuitable for reuse as aggregates. The majority of it (44.3% of total) has been dumped in 4 different landfills close to the access points. Other parts have been used for constructing embankments along the open rail lines close to the portals.42 Apart from production losses and slurry, some of the spoil has been sold to third parties, whose identity and location remains undisclosed. In a similar way, the exact amounts of energy, water, cement and additional aggregates which were needed to construct the tunnel are not being published, whereas the dimensions and locations of spoil management and processing are monitored precisely. This one-sided reporting of material consumption and environmental impacts 56

is very representative of the way in which mega-projects with considerable environmental impacts are being promoted. On each of the 5 attack points, large processing plants have been installed. Each of them has their own crushing, washing and sorting facilities, temporary storage silos, testing laboratories and concrete production plants. 4 major sites in close proximity to the construction sites served as dumping sites for unsuitable spoil material. Three of them can be regarded as typical landfills with considerable topographic implications. The fourth landfill consists of a series of islands on the shore of the lake of Uri, serving multiple purposes in a very convincing way. The islands protect the shore from erosion, create divers habitats and are used by people as bathing islands.43

Urbanized Surfaces challenging the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;invisibilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of underground infrastructures Given the many processing and installation plants as well as massive landfills related to the construction of the tunnel, it becomes evident that the invisibility of underground infrastructures is an illusion. During the various steps in the construction process, many different landscape

operations are at work. This includes crushing, washing, screening, rounding, sorting, storing, piling, testing, irrigating, mixing, refining, transporting, installing, managing, supplying, piling, grading, irrigating, access, retaining, covering, stacking, vegetating, draining, dumping, and

ventilating â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to name just a few actions that are needed to make this tunnel happen. All these operations together create a particular set of surface conditions.

All Images: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

underground is urbanizing the surface.

Environmental protection In harmony with nature

AlpTransit Gotthard New traffic route through the heart of Switzerland

With construction of the new Gotthard rail link, Switzerland is implementing one of Europe’s largest environmental protection projects. The flat route contributes to protecting the Alpine environment. Construction is also taking place as environmentally compatibly as possible.

The first flat route through the Swiss Alps is being built under the Gotthard. The new rail link runs from Altdorf to Lugano. It offers goods traffic a real alternative to the road. Passenger traffic benefits from improved connections and shorter journey times.

Already at the planning phase, as well as during construction of the new Gotthard link, comprehensive measures reduce the impact on people, animals, air and water. Dialog with environmental authorities assists in finding workable solutions.

Environmentally compatible transport ensures clean air Air pollution must be kept as low as possible. Most material is therefore transported by belt conveyor, rail or boat. To minimise the quantities of pollutants entering the air, construction contractors must equip their vehicles and machines with particle filters. Strict rules for waste water Construction site traffic and operations pollute the ground water and tunnel water. It is purified and cooled according to legal regulations before being fed back into the rivers.

Landfill irrigation reduces dust emissions

Dust and noise protection Dust and noise from the construction sites can be annoying for local residents. To prevent noise, temporarily stored humus and topsoil are piled up into noise-mitigation embankments. Out of consideration for residents, the operating times of the construction sites are restricted. At Sigirino, for noise protection reasons the construction site is partly located in a cavern inside the mountain. To avoid dust, the construction sites and temporary storage sites for excavated rock are irrigated and vehicles are regularly cleaned.

Protection of flora and fauna Construction of the new Gotthard link also affects the habitats of animals and plants. In some cases the impact is only temporary and subsequently remediated. If the change in use is permanent, compensation measures are implemented: felled trees are suitably replaced, streams are renatured or their banks naturalised. Along the overground sections, noisemitigation walls are erected or noise and vibration prevention measures implemented. Revitalised Aue Insla, Sedrun

AlpTransit Project Brochure. Source: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

The immense externalities evoked by a single tunnel construction is mind-boggling. What is seen as an project deep in the alpine underground is actually urbanizing the surface quite extensively. It further shows that a highly technocratic and engineer-driven project is actu-

ally very dynamic and fluent, standing in stark contrast with the way the project is portrayed and approached. A glimpse into the official brochure shows that the project is sold as ‘one of Europe’s largest environmental protection projects in harmony with nature.’44 This statement

is either hypocritical or ignorant, but certainly wrong. It reflects again the way infrastructural projects are being marketed while suffering from a limited inclusion of externalities and lateral flows into their environmental assessments.

Image source: Daia Stutz, Zurich Main Station, July 2012.

4 excursus

underground urbanization

Workers at the Simplon Tunnel excavation site, around 1900, Brig, Switzerland. Source: www.retronaut.com, retreived on April 26, 2012. 72

Colonizing the Underground a history of bunkers, tunnels & repositories Switzerland is a highly technocratic territory with a long history of negotiating with its dominant geography through infrastructure. Given its highly divers landscape and topography, the landlocked country in the middle of the Alps ever since had a particular and somewhat peculiar relation to its formative landscapes and the way of dealing with it – especially in terms of underground infrastructures. The tradition of hiding infrastructure and whole urban complexes subsurface is deeply embedded in the Swiss mentality and ranges far back in history. Military driven fortified structures like the National Reduit cave bunkers of the 2nd World War defensive strategy and the long tunneling tradition are just the best known examples of how a country both struggles and takes advantage of its physically and politically limited territory. As a small country that successfully warded any attempt of being occupied or dominated by monarchic powers in its entire 700 year old existence 45 - not least because of its geographical location in the Alps - the political and social conditions have ever been significantly different to its surrounding countries. This not only becomes apparent in the very democratic and federalistic political system and a deep cultural aversion towards any centralized structure, but also in a very close

relationship and a pragmatic approach towards landscape. ‘Faced with the necessity of traversing an alpine landscape and lacking abundant raw materials for export, Switzerland quickly produced masters in engineering and craft’.46 In that sense, Switzerland’s urban development is deeply related to its early industrialization linked with an strong engineering culture, which not only led to leading technologies like the watch industry, but also to striking amount of bridges, tunnels and defensive infrastructures that started to shift the landscape in a very dramatic way. The thoroughly connecting, penetrating and hollowing of the mountainous terrain on every altitude created a huge invisible world deep in the ground. It is no surprise that the nation of ‘inveterate tunnel builders’47 established a deep faith in and dependance on those infrastructures, which almost seem to have a holy status in the national culture. Paradoxically, Switzerland constructed the largest tunnels (AlpTransit) and tallest dams (Grande Dixence) in the world but is inherently afraid of urban ‘bigness’ when it comes to cities or skyscrapers. A high-rise building is being discussed and refused in public over years, whereas large infrastructural project are just barely questioned. Unarguably, the Swiss culture of confidentiality and discretion is not

just reflected in the banking tradition, but more significantly in the built environment, where large amounts of the built form are invisibly located in the underground. The enormous extension of this underworld is not in the consciousness of the people, nor do we know how it affected our way of looking at and perceive landscape. To some extend, the Swiss culture of underground urbanization even takes on absurd dimensions. Under the pretenses of national security and military strength, Switzerland has established a strange tradition of building large amounts of underground shelters. After the nuclear tests of the Soviet Union in the 1950’s, the Swiss government decided to build millions of bomb-proof shelters which became compulsory for every single building during the missile crisis in 1963.48 This act persists up to the 21th century, and Switzerland became the country of air-raid shelters, whose number can almost be read as a ‘barometer of global panic’.49 Today, there are more than 300’000 mostly empty shelters deep in the grounds with place for 8,6 Million people in a country with 7.6 Million inhabitants. After the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima 2011, the Swiss parliament revised its decision from 2010 to dismiss this absurd law and promoted the construction of even more high security bunkers.

Camouflaged bunkers, shelters & cannons in the Swiss Alps. Source: ÂŠ Leo Fabrizio 74

Typical embrasure by the Swiss Army, built as part of the National Reduit defensive strategy during the 2nd World War, Wartau, Switzerland. Source: ÂŠ Daia Stutz 75

switzerland

excavated earth / spoil 40 mio. m3 per year

= 40 x Empire State Building (1 Mio. m3) 76

/ 3 x Big Dig Boston (12,3 Mio. m3)

Image source: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

urbanization of the underground is globally increasing. 78

(stations, tunnels, parking garages, etc.)

mobility

(geothermal heat, hydro pump storage plants, etc.)

(data security, nuclear repository, etc.)

(underground homes, offices, shopping malls, parks, etc.)

energy

storage

inhabitation 79

why?

(scarcity of space, land use, topograhy)

spatial necessity

(historic conservation, environmental protection)

conservation

(hiding of undesirable or unattractive infrastructures)

(speed, distance)

invisibility efficiency

(isolation, containment, protection from risks & disturbances)

safety 81

Data Source: Sustainable European Research Institure (SERI). Image source: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

total waste generation in the EU-27 by waste category in 2008. Source: Eurostat

subsurface developments scales and dimensions of a global phenomena The 21st century has been characterized by unparalleled urban transformations that are shaping cities and landscapes around the world. Within this context, there is strong evidence that urbanization processes are becoming increasingly oriented towards the underground. Never before have there been more train stations, shopping malls, office complexes, tunnels, parking garages, storage spaces and supply infrastructures being built and planned underground.50 The reasons for this tendency are manifold: On the one hand, decentralizing urban sprawl and growing cities are limiting the spatial capacity to accommodate the simultaneous demand for constructing and maintaining large scale infrastructural projects. Furthermore, the need for ecologically and economically sustainable resource management and land use in the context of the growing awareness for conserving and protecting cultural landscapes and historic city centers often leaves no other alternative than to construct new mobility- and energy-infrastructures below the surface. On the other hand, current shifts in energy policies and economies away from nuclear energy towards renewable sources as well as new related technologies in the fields of geothermal heat and hydropower are fostering the exploration and development of the underground for the years to come.

Urban discourse has tended to focus much attention on the visible urbanization processes that are happening on the surface, whereas the invisible infrastructures beneath the surface - which are needed to sustain constructions on the surface - are often ignored or taken for granted. This is surprising since their scale is at least the same, if not greater. The two realms are often seen and treated as two different and separate entities; the visible part designed by the architect, landscape architect and planner (buildings, streets, bridges, parks, etc.), and the invisible part designed by the civil engineer (pipes, wires, sewers, tunnels, parking garages, train stations, etc.). This apparently clear distinction, however, does not correspond to the reality of urbanization processes whatsoever, which are simultaneously engaging the surface and subsurface on a mutual dependency. In fact, aboveground construction both requires and entails underground urbanization, and vice versa.

of sand and gravel has grown by 187% to 20 billion tons per year, representing the highest growth rate of all commodities worldwide.51 Never before in history has humankind extracted, transported, shifted, processed and reproduced more soils and minerals than in 2012. On the input-side, the production of both concrete and metals requires huge amounts of soil, gravel and sand to be excavated, moved and refined. On the output-side, extractions from construction sites as well as mineral wastes from demolitions of buildings entail billions of tons of mineral waste. As a result, today, minerals represent the largest material stream on earth.52

At the core of this thesis lies the understanding of underground urbanization in all its facets as a growing part of overall urbanization. As mentioned, the extent to which urbanization is happening underground is much larger than it is generally assumed, with an immense engagement and embracing of landscape related to it. In the past 30 years, the consumption

switzerland: material flow accounts

Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office 86

input total

extraction, imports, hidden flows

Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office 87

Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office

12 t per person per year

9.4 t from underground Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office

freight transportation in switzerland

freight transportation in switzerland 2010 (total: 279â&#x20AC;&#x2122;753â&#x20AC;&#x2122;000 t)

1985 90

1900

1995

mio ton kilometers 18’000

road cargo

16’000

14’000

12’000

10’000

rail cargo

8’000

6’000

4’000

2’000 Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office

0 2000

2005

2010 91

minerals are by far the largest material stream in all categories. 92

Image source: ÂŠ AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

significance challenges of mineral flows The urbanization of the underground has specific implications - both spatially, socially and politically. First, the sheer amount of minerals that is being shifted poses logistical and spatial challenges. Due to scarce space, regulations and ecological reasons, it is in many cases difficult to find a place to either extract or dispose minerals, as beneficial uses for overburden and spoil are mostly lacking.53 This is â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for the most part â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a legal, economical but also design-related issue. At the same time, the dynamism behind underground urbanization is often disregarded, as material flows are rarely considered as part of the socio-economic system or the urban processes themselves. With that, the danger of ignoring externalities and lateral flows as direct and indirect consequences of a certain project is problematic.

The main problem, however, is the inefficient use and isolation of material flows and waste streams in relation to many underground infrastructures. Despite the fact that such projects are based on and related to very dynamic processes, there is a prevalent technocratic, engineerdriven, linear and somewhat isolated approach in the development of subsurface constructions and few connections were made to the widespread surface impacts of theses processes. For the most part, subsurface constructions are designed to serve one single purpose, with many potential synergies with other uses, processes and flows left unconsidered.55 The lack of multi-functionality further hinders flexible, adaptive and resilient strategies to successfully accommodate changing conditions and demands.

In addition, all landscape operations related to underground urbanization require high energy- and water-consumption and cause high carbon emissions.54 Other ecological consequences include degradation of ecosystems and pollution of water and soils. Issues related to the fact that more and more people live and work underground, as well as the insufficient, unclear and even contradictory legal situation concerning the underground shall not be directly addressed in this thesis.

Image source: Google Earth Pro

5 project statement

alps as process

alps as process During the course of this research, the Alptransit project became the vehicle through which the urban transformations currently shaping the Alps were looked at. This new perspective helped to break the prevalent isolated view on the Alpine territory and to further understand and articulate it as part of much larger urban processes. With that, the Alps are not only identified as intrinsically urban, but as an ever-changing and dynamic entity. Flows of resources, commodities, water, people and capital â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all driven by anthropogenic factors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; form a complex territorial system which needs to be recognized as such â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with all its biotic and abiotic components. This understanding fundamentally challenges static and fixed views of the Alps and the instruments usually promoted by traditionalist or environmentalist movements and conservation or preservation agendas. Rather, by incorporating the transformative forces and temporal processes evoked by large-scale infrastructures (such as the Alptransit), and combining them with hydrological, geological and other biophysical processes, it is possible to establish new and interesting relationships, synergies and economies that break with common cultural values attached to the alpine landscape and nature. To take this further, it becomes imperative to understand the Alps as an operating urban ecology itself where processes of urbanization, de-urbanization, growth and shrinkage come together and actually turn into the programmatic vectors of a systemImage source: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd

ic and flexible design approach. Concretely, this means to take the concept of dynamic processes literally and propose a landscape that is in constant change. Flexible and adaptive strategies replace concepts of fixation and conservation. Furthermore, this means to actively engage landscape as a operating ecology by combining systems of people, animals, plants, soils, water, ice, snow, air, food, waste, energy and mobility. With that, the territory becomes performative, equally benefiting economical, ecological and social interests.

design strategy

incorporate transformative forces & temporal processes establish new relationships, economies and synergies

Image source: Switzerland Tourism

5 design project

the surselva as an operating urban ecology

porta alpina - the project

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The most spectacular lift in the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Promotion Brochure for the Porta Alpina Project. Source: Solami. retrieved from: http://www.solami.com/portaalpina.htm

100

project perimeter

porta alpina, sedrun

Alptransit Rail Tunnel

101

102

Oberalp pass

existing rail tunnel

Andermatt

Gรถschenen

territorial overview

Sedrun

Access-shaft for ‘Porta Alpina’

reservoirs and dams

The perfect ground to test this principle is again in relationship to the Alptransit. As mentioned above, there is an excavation and ventilation shaft which is located in the village of Sedrun in the Upper Rhine Valley, called the Surselva. The people in the valley and many supporters are actively advocating the idea of turning the shaft into a permanent station to link the Surselva to the Alptransit tunnel, and therefore to the European High Speed Rail Network. This new station, called ‘Porta Alpina’ will most likely happen at some point in the future, as soon as the funding is secured. It would have a major impact on the whole inner-alpine region, as it would be linked to major cities like Zurich or Milano in less than 2 hours.56

new Alptransit tunnel

103

hydrology & hydropower

104

existing rail tunnel

river Anterior Rhine

residual streams

reservoirs & dams

railway

skilift

avelanche protection barriers

river Reuss

highway

mobility & energy infrastructures

Andermatt Sedrun

new Alptransit tunnel

105

agriculture & fallow land

forest

fallow land

forestry

systemic sections: existing relationships

106

107

urbanized territory: overview andermatt and sedrun protected (glacial) landscape river Reuss forest

village of Göschenen hydro-power plant reservoir planned ski slopes

underground hydro pressure gallery windmills

existing ski slopes railway and highway existing skilifts

existing railway tunnel ‘Andermatt Swiss Alps’, planned urban expansion transmission lines Andermatt

car tunnel water treatment plant

108

village of Sedrun new Alptransit tunnel access shaft, planned station for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Porta Alpinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

hyro pressure gallery dam reservoir wetlands

swamp glacier

109

WOOD PASTURE

possible new land uses and economies in sedrun. 110

GOLD MINING - WIND TURBINE ENERGY

TIMBER PLANTATION

MANAGED FORE

EST

AGRO-FORESTRY

HOUSING & FORESTRY

AVELANCHE DEFLECTION BARRIERS ENERGY - SKIING - HIKING

111

the Surselva as an operating urban ecology The design project takes the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Porta Alpinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as an opportunity to introduce a different way of dealing with the territory. The Surselva is to a great extend affected by all of the three dynamic forces highlighted in the first chapter. There is both a concentrated realestate boom (in the form of second homes), abandonment (depopulation and reforestation of fallow land) and climate change (more avalanches and mudslides). The cultivated land is pretty much artificially kept in the same state it has been for centuries, with a subsidized agriculture and forestry industry. At the same time, the region is highly urbanized in terms of energy and mobility infrastructures. The concentration of roads, railways, tunnels, ski-lifts and hydropower dams is impressive, currently experiencing another cycle of upgrading (new ski-lifts, Alptransit, etc). It speaks to the fact that the valley is entirely dependent and focused on tourism, well-known as a region for any form of winter sports and hiking. However, due to strict zoning and land use plans, the Surselva is not able to fully Image source: Google Earth

112

take advantage of its natural resources; wood, gold and soap stone. The valley has great gold reserves, but the plan for a new touristic national park in the region has led to a ban for mining. Similarly, in an effort to keep the landscape scenery as it is, the harvesting and planting of forests for timber production is impossible. These two examples are very representative of how the Surselva is more and more turning into a museum. The proposal is to shift gears a bit and to let the Surselva become an actively engaged urban territory, where tourism, leisure, food production and resource extraction happen simultaneously and take advantage of each other. It is the idea of inclusion rather then exclusion of various interests and territorial functions, of precisely determining and activating the values and possibilities of the site. Instead of externalizing the needs of society and nature, the focus is on the uncompromising use of local resources. Based on a thorough analysis of the terrain and its biophysi-

cal, social, ecological and economic potentials, a series of possible scenarios have been developed, bringing together interests of raw material and energy production, ecological revitalization and cultivation, alpine tourism, disaster control and protection, living, work and leisure. At the basis of these schemes lies the belief that some major but simple changes in policies and traditions, e.g. the dismissal of current zoning plans and various rules such as the strict protection of forests or the banning of mining, could tap the full potential of the Surselva as a future urban ecology. The following 6 scenarios are at the core of the proposal:

1. Logging the Alps

3. Mining the Alps

5. Blasting the Alps

with an extended forestry zone, new plantations and technologies, the forest in the Surselva becomes a dynamic infrastructure that provides both wood, protection and a variety of different habitats. The forest is understood as an ever-changing structure simultaneously growing in different succession states.

Gold and soap-stone mines are used to set-up temporal topographies with divers conditions, providing valuable habitats for different animals and plants. The different mining phases are synchronized with the life-cycles of flora and fauna.

Mudslides and Rockfalls are no longer prevented and stabilized, but either launched by prescription or neutralized by deflection barriers made out of spoil from tunneling. Erosive processes are being adopted by urban planning and form an urban topography in constant flow.

2. Burning the Alps

4. Flooding the Alps

6. Suburbanizing the Alps

Alternatively, the reforested fallow lands are managed by silvi-pasture and agro-forestry, combining both agriculture, wood production and livestock. The border between arable land and forest dissolves, and fire is used to ecologically manage the pastures in certain timeframes and to build up soil on rocky slopes.

hazardous flood-zones near villages are turned into temporal lakes with fluctuating water tables, providing both energy via small-scale hydro-power plants and new shorelines for leisure and amusement.

The Villages no longer grow within restricted boundaries in the valleys, but sprawl up mountain ridges to avoid flooding. Forest management roads and gondolas connect the new urban clusters which are no longer endangered by mudslides or avalanches. Towers in the forest with unparalleled views become the new standard for occupying the Alps.

113

EXISTING

1) LOGGING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Existing Forest

Possible Area for Intensive Timber Production (based on slope degree, soil condition and accessability) 114

115

EXISTING

2) BURNING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Small Agricultural Parcels and Fallow Pastures

Possible Silvi-Pasture, Agro-Forestry and Prescribed Fire Management 116

117

EXISTING

3) MINING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Gold Ore Occurrence Zones and Planned National Park

Possible Open Pit Gold and Soap Stone Mines with Extensive Management with temporal and spatial Phazing 118

119

EXISTING

4) FLOODING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Upper Rhine River, Streams, Hydropower Pressure Galleries & Transmission Lines

Possible Dynamic Floodplaines, Hydropower Dams and Lakes 120

121

EXISTING

5) BLASTING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Avelanche and Mud- / Landslide Hazardous Zones

Possible Prescribed Avelanche and Mud- / Landslide Flows 122

123

EXISTING

6) SUBURBANIZING THE ALPS

THEORETICAL PROJECTION

Urban Footprint of Sedrun (left) and Disentis (right)

Possible Urban Growth along Mountain Ridges in relation to Forestry 124

125

logging

flooding

126

burning

blasting

mining

suburbanizing

Overall, this proposal depicts a vision of an alpine territory that becomes active, engaged and dynamic. It breaks with the deeply embedded Swiss conviction of maximal control and determination, of fixation and order. Rather, contingency and temporality stand in the foreground and become programmatic forces. The territory becomes unfinished, open and hybrid, initiated by processes of un-planning and un-zoning. Risk becomes an integral part of alpine urbanization. The strategy of mixing various successional stages of forests with settlements, agricultural production, timber harvesting and livestock breeding gives momentum to adaptivity, flexibility and resilience. In combination with different time scales of temporary topography, flooding and prescribed fires, the landscape becomes multifunctional, incremental and ephemeral. In all its parts, from the Alptransit tunnel to the windmills, from the forests to the pastures, from the fires to the housings, from the dams to the mines, the urbanized landscape of the Surselva becomes an ecological process itself.

127

cities

flows & networks

forest

agriculture

rivers & lakes 128

surface temperature

In conclusion, it seems important to zoom back up to the alpine scale and trying to reflect on this multinational mountain range as a whole. What if we think about applying these scenarios on the entire alpine territory of Europe? What does it need to start understanding new forms of energy production, underground infrastructures, agriculture / silviculture, housing and transportation systems, mining / resource extraction, hydrological flows and global warming as urban processes that are highly interrelated

and in need to be connected? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Alps as processâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; raises a series of questions not only about ownership and agency on a territorial scale, but also about new possible ways of experiencing the Alps. In the end, repositioning the Alps as an ecological urban infrastructures will help us to actively and socially engage with the multiple processes underlying them. And this is where we need to start.

129

endnotes / bibliography 1) Roger Diener et al., Switzerland: An Urban Portrait , Vol. 3 (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006), p. 920. 2) Diener, Roger, Jacques Bernard Herzog, Marcel Meili, Pierre de de Meuron, and Chrisitian Schmid. Switzerland: An Urban Portrait. Vol. 3. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006. 3) Roger Diener et al., Switzerland: An Urban Portrait , Vol. 3 (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006), p. 920 - 926. 4/5) Angelus Eisinger and Michel Schneider, Urbanscape Switzerland: Topology and Regional Development in Switzerland (Zürich; Basel: Avenir Suisse; Birkhäuser, 2003), 399. 6) Benno Tuchschmid, “Ausländische Investoren in Den Schweizer Bergen”. My Translation, Aargauer Zeitung, Dec 18, 2010. 7) see ‘Andermatt tomorrow - a sustainable holiday destination.’ Andermatt Swiss Alps AG, accessed May 12, 2013, http://www.andermatt-swissalps.ch/village.html#page20. 8) Roger Diener et al., Switzerland: An Urban Portrait , Vol. 3 (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006), p. 921. 9) Andreas Finger, Landschaft Schweiz Im Wandel - Die Waldausbreitung Im Alpenraum, My Translation (Neuchâtel: BFS, Bundesamt für Statistik,[2012]). 10) see Sandra Maag et al., Mögliche Folgen einer Bewirtschaftungsaufgabe von Wiesen und Weiden im Berggebiet, My Translation (Zurich: ETH Zurich,[2001]).; and Pierre Walther, “Land Abandonment in the Swiss Alps, a New Understanding of a Land use Problem, accessed May 17, 2013,” http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3673371?uid=3739696&uid=2129&uid=2&uid= 70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102297143367 11) Laura Smith-Spark, “ Switzerland’s Only Wild Bear is Killed as a Danger to Humans,” CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/world/europe/switzerland-bear-killed (accessed April 20, 2013). 12) “Game Over - Switzerland’s Only Wild Bear is Shot.” Swissinfo.ch, last modified February 20, accessed April 20, 2013, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Switzerlands_only_wild_ bear_is_shot.html?view=print&cid=35035130. 13/14) Isoar, Stéphane et al., 2009. Regional Climate Change and Adaptation. the Alps Facing the Challenge of Changing Water Resources. Copenhagen: EEA European Environment Agency. 15) Thomas Probst et al., Alpine Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Field of Natural Hazards (Bern: Federal Office for the Environment FOEN,[2007]). 16) David Disch and Silvia Reppe, Klimawandel in den Alpen, my Translation (Berlin: Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU ),[2008]). 17) Kieselbach, Nora. “Jahr 2100: Eiche Top, Fichte Flop. My Translation.” Naturschutz.ch, last modified September 24, accessed April 12, 2013, http://naturschutz.ch/news/jahr-2100-eichetop-fichte-flop/52401. 18) Isoar, Jol and Uhel, Regional Climate Change and Adaptation. the Alps Facing the Challenge of Changing Water Resources , 9-22 19) “Europe’s Largest Hydro Power Plant being Built in Switzerland,” MEVA Schalungs-Systeme Gmbh, http://www.meva.de/us/press/entries/2012_09_24_ch_glarus_hydro-power-plant. php?listLink=1&pr=1 (accessed April 16, 2013). 20/21) Pierre Bélanger, “Landscape Infrastructure: Urbanism Beyond Engineering,” in Infrastructure Sustainability & Design, eds. Spiro N. Pollalis et. al. (New York: Routledge, 2012), 276-280. 22) Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius and Werner Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition, (United Kingdom ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 207. 23) The Statistical Encyclopedia: Bundesausgaben Für Die Landwirtschaft Und Die Ernährung . 2013b. Neuchâtel: Federal Statistical Office. 24) Jürg Schmid, MySwitzerland: Mountains and Lakes. (Zürich: Switzerland Tourism,[2013]). 25) ”Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance.” Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, last modified 2/21/2013, accessed April 2, 2013, http://www. bafu.admin.ch/bln/index.html?lang=en. 26) “Second Homes Vote Triggers Uncertainty,” Swissinfo, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/march_11_vote/Second_homes_vote_triggers_uncertainty.html?cid=32279438 (April 14, 2013). 27) “Urban Sprawl: Tug of War Over Scarce Building Areas,” SwissInfo, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Tug_of_war_over_scarce_building_areas.html?cid=34680302 (April 16, 2013). 28) see “Members of the Alpine Concerence: European Association of Elected Representatives from Mountain Regions, Alpe Adria, Arge Alp, CIPRA International, Club Arc Alpin, COTRAO – the Working Community of the Western Alps, Euromontana, FIANET, the International Steering Committee of the Network of Protected Areas, the IUCN, the Managing Authority of the European Cooperation Programme Alpine Space, Pro Mont Blanc, UNEP and ISCAR,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Convention (accessed April 25, 2013). 29) “The Alpine Convention,” Alpine Convention, http://www.alpconv.org/en/convention/pages/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 (accessed May 10, 2013). 30-34) AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd., AlpTransit Gotthard. 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