Swiss Review 5/2018

Swiss Review / September 2018 / No.5 6 Focus This project in the municipality of Chêne-Bougeries in Geneva is considered exemplary, the tim- ber facades are remi- niscent of rural ar- chitecture. STÉPHANE HERZOG Building in cities and in their vicin- ity, wherever spaces may be exploited, in order to brake urban sprawl, which gnaws away 1.2 square metres of ag- ricultural land per second; but also reducing buildable areas which are too extensive. This is the concept ac- cepted by the Swiss who supported the new spatial planning law (SPA), which entered into effect inMay 2014. In a country inwhich the legal instru- ments allowing agricultural areas to be demarcated from buildable areas were implemented belatedly, i.e. at Switzerland accepts increased urban density - reluctantly The revision of the spatial planning law has put the brakes on urban sprawl by forcing local authorities to increase the density of built-up areas, although the application of this policy is not without opposition. the end of the 1960s, the new law im- poses genuine barriers against expo- nential consumption of land. “The SPA has introduced a five-year mora- torium, prohibiting municipalities from demarcating new building ar- eas unless they are offset with agri- cultural land, with the cantons obliged to submit amasterplan to the Confederation within this deadline. This brake will have effects,” says Christa Perregaux DuPasquier, dep- uty director of the territorial plan- ning association which has become EspaceSuisse. Between 1985 and 2009, housing and infrastructure areas grewby 23.4% in a territory where this footprint amounts to 7.5%. This process above all affected urban belts and metropol- itan areas. Is Switzerland densely pop- ulated? “That is hard to say,” points out the urban planner and architect Jérôme Chenal, who directs the Urban and Regional Planning Community (CEAT) of the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne. He considers that a journey across the Swiss Plateau reveals a density which remains ac- ceptable and that the potential for in-