Master of Advanced Studies
Urban and
Territorial Design
MAS UTD
ETH ZürichEPFL
STUDIO EPFL
Autumn 2024

SYLVOPOLITAN FUTURES: Reimagining the Transboundary ForestsFrancisca Cortés, Luna Maes, Ranjinee Mallick, and Cristina Terricabras

Clic, clac clic, the sound of a horseshoe on an asphalt road. The rushing of l’Hermance is barely noticeable.

After work, I must go to the grocery store; we are out of fruit and toilet paper. What, again a traffic jam, every morning it is the same story, I will be late again. Tomorrow I’ll leave at 6:30.

What is that noise? I do not know it. The squirrel hides while the plane. All going to Geneva.

Bonjour, two coffees, one with sugar. - Where are you working today? - We are pouring concrete for the basement of a new single-family house near Tholomax. - Here is your coffee. - When do you go back home? - My contract ends in September. - See you tomorrow.

The ground is wet and muddy; it rained tonight. My feet will get stuck in the marsh but I know another way. The way is blocked by a loud road with fast things rushing through. I cannot cross it.

The smell of car gasses on an empty stomach. I could run on a trail in the woods. Pfff, I do not know the way and do not have the time to figure it out right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Today I saw a duck with a red head. Dad said it comes here every winter and he used to count them. Now we live too far away.

a morning in the transboundary forests

Northeast of Geneva, South of Léman Lake, lies a forest.

This transboundary forest, on the border of France and Switzerland, experiences two different sets of legislatures, making its management difficult and its characters many. Situated at the crossroads of many ecological corridors, it forms an important connection from the Alps to the Léman Lake and the Jura. Close to three historical empires, the territory is engrained with a rich cultural history.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the MAS Teaching Staff at the EPFL and Habitat Research Center. We are also grateful for those who are willing to dedicate their time and share their knowledge with us during our field trips, especially François Jorat from Douvaine.

Photographs and images by authors unless otherwise indicated.

Sources

  • art éditions. (2019). Miscellanées Jusserandes. Slatkine Editions. ISBN 9782940663002
  • Cogato Lanza, E. (2024). Plan Wahlen. System Thinking course MAS Urban and Territorial Design. EPFL fall semester 2024.
  • De Meulder, B. & Shannon, K. (2024). Framing Forest Urbanisms. Forest Urbanism, New non-human and human ecologies for the 21st Century, Leuven University Press, 15-76. 
  • Douvaine. (2024) Découvrir Douvaine et le Chablais. Douvaine, Porte du Léman. https://douvaine.fr/douvaine/decouvrir-douvaine-et-le-chablais/
  • Dufour, L. (1877) Map of Lake Geneva by the syndic Jean Du Villard, Memoirs and documents published by the Society of History and Archaeology of Geneva, 19, p. 359-367
  • Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Cumberland: Belknap Press.
  • Harvey, D. (2013). Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution. in ACLS Humanities. Verso.
  • Ingold, T. (2000). Building, dwelling, living: How animals and people make themselves at home in the world. The perception of the Environment. Routledge, 172-188. 
  • Jessel, B. (2024). Ecosystem Services. Landscape Development course MAS Urban and Territorial Design. EPFL fall semester 2024.
  • Rancière, J. (2015). The Emancipated Spectator in Stavrides, S. Common Space as Threshold Space: Urban Commoning in Struggles to Re-appropriate Public Space. Footprint. 9. 9-20. 
  • Roberts, Patrick. (2021). Jungle: How Tropical Forests Shaped the World—and Us. New York: Viking Press. 
  • Salvia, G., Pluchinotta, I., Tsoulou, I., Moore, G., & Zimmermann, N. (2022). Understanding Urban Green Space Usage through Systems Thinking: A Case Study in Thamesmead, London. Sustainability, 14(5), 2575.  
  • Shingne. M.C. (2022). The more-than-human right to the city: A multispecies reevaluation. Journal of Urban Affairs. 44:2, 137-155. 
  • Sijmons, D. (2012). Simple Rules: Emerging Order? A Designer’s Curiosity About Complexity Theories. In: Portugali, J., Meyer, H., Stolk, E., Tan, E. (eds) Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. 
  • Spirn, A.W. (1988). The Poetics of City and Nature: Towards a New Aesthetic for Urban Design. Landscape Journal. 7:2, 108-126. 
  • Stavrides, S. (2015). Common Space as Threshold Space: Urban Commoning in Struggles to Re-appropriate Public Space. Footprint. 9. 9-20. 
  • Sterman, J., Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2000

The MAS UTD programme links the ETH Zürich Department of Architecture and EPF Lausanne School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering. It is part of the ETH Zürich D-ARCH Landscape and Urban Studies Institute (LUS) and the EPFL ENAC Habitat Research Center (HRC).

Contact: info-masutd@ethz.ch

ETH Zürich D-ARCH

Programme Director
Milica Topalović, Assoc. Professor
Chair of Architecture and Territorial Planinng

Programme Co-ordinator
Dr. Nancy Couling

EPFL ENAC

Programme Director
Paola Viganò, Professor
Habitat Research Center

Programme Co-ordinator
Dr. Tommaso Pietropolli