Highways in the City
Is it conceivable to question the presence of highways within urban environments? What potential for requalification can such spaces — endowed with singular characteristics — offer?
This is the central question of this series of “counter-projects,” which seek to adapt, transcend, re-contextualize, and re-conceptualize highway infrastructures that still exist within the city. Indeed, several Swiss cities are crossed by segments of the national road network. As remnants of an unfinished vision of the city, these corridors act as barriers to urban mobility, sources of air and noise pollution, and zones of congestion created by the massive automobile flows they channel into city centers—far exceeding the capacity of the urban fabric.
The first step therefore consists in identifying and mapping these territories; the second, in formulating hypotheses regarding their possible evolution. Drawing on existing research, site visits, and project development, the studio generated ideas and perspectives intended for collective and public debate, taking Geneva as the case study.