66 | Juni 2025: Human Landscape Interaction / Interaktion Mensch Landschaft - NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft

Dear Readers,

How does the interaction between humans and the landscape shape us? How and to what extent should/can we influence it? In the face of climate change, statically designed landscapes require new, dynamic approaches. Innovative projects like TANTAN’EAU help with water and flood management, while food policy intervenes in urban agriculture. Scenario planning supports complex visions of the future, and industrial heritage, such as waste dumps, has a lasting impact on our landscapes.

We hope you enjoy reading this informative newsletter.

Digitalisiertes physisches Sediment Ablagerungsmodell, Ditital Design Methods II @ ETH Zürich, Professur Voser

Hybrides Entwerfen für multikodierte Wasserlandschaften

Dennis Häusler | Landschaftsarchitektur, Prof. Martina Voser und Matthias Vollmer | Large Scale Virtualisation and Modelling Lab – LVML

Die Landschaftsarchitektur sieht sich im Kontext des Klimawandels mit vielfältigen Herausforderungen konfrontiert. Beim Umgang mit Wasserlandschaften treffen zunehmend intensivere hydrologische Dynamiken auf überwiegend statisch gestaltete Landschaften. Diese Entwicklung bedingt ein Umdenken und ein dynamischeres Verständnis der Wechselwirkungen zwischen Wasser und Land. Um zukunftsfähige und robuste Landschaften gestalten zu können, beschäftigen wir uns deshalb mit der Entwicklung von Entwurfsmethoden, die digitale und physische Arbeitsweisen verbinden.

The Serious Game Tantaneau © ETH Zürich, Ralph Sonderegger

From Design to Research to Play: A Co-creative Process for Designing a Serious Game on Flood Management

Constance Brouillet | Future Cities Lab Global | Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems, Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey

TANTAN’EAU – a wordplay merging «Tantano» (to manage in Malagasy) and «Eau» (water in French) – is a serious game that helps decision-makers explore flood risk management. Designed to balance playability, realism, and the incorporation of architectural propositions, it immerses players in the challenges of peri-urban development in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo (Tana).

Rämistrasse 1942. Sportwiese während 'Anbauschlacht'. Foto: Gallas Wilhelm. Nachweis: Baugeschichtliches Archiv (BAZ_107103.tiff). Lizenz: Public Domain Mark

Agrarian Urbanism and the Politics of Food and Land

Dr. Nitin Bathla | Sociology, Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid

Urban farming and agrarian struggles are reshaping cities and urbanising landscapes. In Zurich and beyond, agroecological initiatives, political food movements, and global urbanisation projects reveal how urban and agrarian worlds are entangled and enmeshed – offering new ways to rethink planning, property, urban ecology, and the future of urbanisation.

Aerial view of a winded garden path, people walking on it, surrounded by plants of different greens.

Experimental Planting: Garden of the 21st Century New Orleans

Bonnie Kate Walker | Chair of Being Alive, Landscape Architecture, Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard

New Orleans is a landscape paradox – a city largely below sea level, which continues to sink as the sea rises outside the levee walls that protect it. Despite its capacity to produce a tremendous amount of biomass and ecological diversity, the city’s urban forest has been in decline since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the Garden of the 21st Century New Orleans, we are testing the potential of the Miyawaki method of forest planting to create possibilities for a new type of urban forest in the context of frequent disturbance and climatic precarity.

Four scenarios were identified by projecting and clustering hundreds of land use simulations. © ETH Zürich, Infrastructure Management Group

Mapping Future Development Scenarios Through Spatial Clustering with Land Use Models

Orlando Roman, Bryan T. Adey | Infrastructure Management

Scenario planning is increasingly used in urban planning in recognition of the uncertain and complex interactions between the built and the natural environment. Scenario planning develops alternative stories about the future, as combinations of important drivers of change, qualitatively. The use of computational models can inform the development of future scenarios when a large number of factors and scenarios exist.

Image of Winterslag Halde (flat landscape with some buildings and wind mills © ETH Zürich, Philippe Vandenbroeck

Wiederbelebung marginaler Räume: Eine Praxis der imaginativen Aktivierung

Philippe Vandenbroeck | Newrope, Architecture and Urban Transformation, Prof. Freek Persyn

Abraumhalden sind ein charakteristisches Landschaftselement ehemaliger Kohlebergbaugebiete. In Flandern und im französischen Norden werden sie Terrils genannt. Lange Zeit galten sie als Randzonen, wurden häufig abgetragen und als Erholungsflächen umgenutzt oder in Grün-Blau-Netzwerke integriert. In Einzelfällen bleiben sie als Zeugnisse des industriellen Erbes erhalten.

Sprinkler head and flowering hay meadow in Törbel, May 2025. © ETH Zürich, Nicole de Lalouvière

Care, Cooperation, and Commoning: Revisiting «The System Nobody Knows»

Dr. Nicole de Lalouvière | History and Theory of Urban Design, Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete

Switzerland’s cultural landscapes – green pastures and flowering hay meadows – have been deeply shaped by resources (forests, pastures, and irrigation water) governed as commons (Allmende). In spite of radical changes to their institutional and infrastructural framework, the irrigation systems of Canton Valais remain grounded in an enduring ethos of care, crucial to sustaining local landscapes and their communities.

Kurzmeldungen | Short Messages

Broad bicycle road with a lot of trees left and right © D-Baug, Nightnurse

“The lack of vision has led transport policy down a dead end.”

Cities can expand their bike lane networks significantly without causing additional congestion on the roads. That is the conclusion reached by the ETH research project E-Bike City. Project lead and transport researcher Kay Axhausen explains the implications for traffic, the environment and costs.

Article on the ETH News | Article in the Tages-Anzeiger (Paywall)

David Kaufmann is New Editor-in-Chief of the disP – The Planning Review

Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann, Dr. Martina Koll-Schretzenmayr | disp – The Planning Review

The plan is to (re)position the journal as a key publication in the field of planning. They will build on the long history and high reputation of the journal – as being owned by ETH Zürich / Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft (NSL), ETH Zürich and having close ties to AESOP – Association of European Schools of Planning – while also increasing its international reach and scholarly impact. disP is a deliberately interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal for planning scholarship. Their mission is to publish high quality planning research that integrates important contemporary issues such as urban ecological transitions, socio-spatial justice, digitalisation of planning processes, or democratic participation in planning.

Philipp Urech hält einen Vortrag "Punktwolkenmodellierung für Landschaftsarchitektur"

Swisstopo-Kolloquium: Präzisionsmodellierung auf grossem Massstab in der Landschaftsarchitektur

Dr. Philipp Urech | Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling Lab (LVML)

Nach sechs Jahren LiDAR-Vermessung aus der Luft ist nun die klassifizierte Punktwolke der Schweiz – swissSURFACE3D – für das gesamte Schweizer Territorium verfügbar. Zu diesem Anlass präsentierte Dr. Philipp Urech Forschungsarbeiten aus dem Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling Lab (LVML), ergänzt durch praktische Beispiele seiner wegweisenden Methode für die Landschaftsarchitektur mit Präzisionsmodellierung im grossen Massstab. Der Vortrag fand im Rahmen der Kolloquiumsreihe des Bundesamtes für Landestopografie statt. (Folien und Videoaufzeichnung sind bei Swisstopo in Deutsch verfügbar: «14.03.2025 – swissSURFACE3D schweizweit»)

The landslide in Misox in summer 2024: Despite significant damage to the motorway and the blockage of a major transport artery, Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) had traffic flowing again within two weeks. (Image: Samuel Golay / Keystone)

Reasons to feel confident

From bridges and tunnels to railways, Switzerland has always invested heavily in the upkeep of its infrastructure. But how does it keep everything operating safely and smoothly while also instilling confidence that nothing will go wrong? Read the full article at ETH News

E-Bike City: Results

Dr. Catherine Elliot | Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT)

If you missed the event «E-Bike City: Results & Future», have a look at the downloads and recordings section on this website. It offers a brochure, presentations, posters, video recordings, and street visualisations. May they positively impact our traffic situation and quality of life!

Beyond Maintenance: Responsive Practices for Changing Landscapes

Chair Being Alive | Landscape Architecture, Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard

In February 2025, over 40 practitioners, researchers, and educators came together at ETH Zürich for this colloquium, to discuss the evolving relationship between the design and maintenance of living systems. In response to accelerating climate uncertainty, shrinking municipal budgets, and precarious labour conditions, the colloquium posed a simple but urgent question: how might we maintain landscapes otherwise? Videos of the keynote lectures and the book of abstracts are now available here.

Publikationen | Publications

This is a selection. Find a complete list in the ETH Zürich Research Collection.

Launch of the Atlas of Regenerative Materials

27th June 2025 | web platform.

This new web platform is a repository for information about the whole value chain in construction with bio- and geosourced materials.

Banner des ETH Learning and Teaching Journal

Marco Pagani, Michael Walczak, Hubert Klumpner

Digital Pedagogy for Data-driven Unsolicited Urban Design

As urban environments evolve with increasing complexity, urban planning must adapt by often responding to unsolicited demands rather than to commissioned, structured work. This paper explores the integration of digital tools – including Digital Twins – into the architectural curriculum at ETH Zurich, aiming to bridge the gap between data-driven site analysis and data-driven design.

Cover of the brochure: "The E-Bike City. Designing Sustainable Streets"

Kay W. Axhausen, Catherine Elliot (ed.)

The E-Bike City. Designing Sustainable Streets

The E-Bike City project’s design is anchored in shifting away from private car use, particularly for daily commuting. It does so by ensuring access to shared vehicle hubs within 200 meters (or another designated distance) of every residence, promoting convenience and accessibility.

Cover of the journal disP, Volume 60, Issue 4, December 2024

disP 60/4, December 2024

disP – The Planning Review, Volume 60, Issue 4, December 2024 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Weiterbildung | Studiengänge | Further Education

Symbol image for the CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials Hygrothermal Specialisation 2025.

CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials – Hygrothermal Specialisation 2025

The application window is now open and will be closed as soon as the group is defined (or by 31.08.2025 at the latest). Start: Autumn semester 2025.

Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Regenerative Systems

Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Regenerative Systems

Application: 1. June – 30. June 2025 | Duration: September 2025 – January 2026.

CAS#1 Worldviews: From Sustainability to Regeneration
Continua

MAS Raumentwicklung & CAS Raumentwicklung und Planungspraxis

MAS Raumentwicklung & CAS Raumentwicklung und Planungspraxis

Bewerbung: 1. Mai – 31. Juli 2025 | Dauer: 25. August 2025 – 6. Februar 2026.
Continua

Symbol image: A woman with VR goggles.

Design++ XR in AEC Summer School 2025

Application deadline: 1 July | Summer School: 1-5 September 2025 | at ETH Zurich.

This hands-on programme brings together students, researchers, and professionals to explore how extended reality is reshaping architecture, engineering, and construction.

Aktuell | Current

This is a selection. Head over to our News-Page for more.

Veranstaltungsplakat: 10-Jahre Zwischennutzung am Sihlquai

10 Jahre Zwischennutzung am Sihlquai

1.-6. Juli 2025 | Sihlquai 125, 131 und 133, 8005 Zürich.

Symbolischer allgemeiner Flyer. Der Text ist auch unter dem Bild.

10-Minuten-Nachbarschaften

Wir laden Sie herzlich zu unseren Wanderausstellungen «10-Minuten-Nachbarschaften» ein.

Symbol Image: two wet clay cubes on top of each other.

First International Earth Construction Forum (ECF)

Call for Papers until 30 June | 3 and 4 October 2025 | OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, Rapperswil.

DELUS Chasing Water at Microscope

Opening: 3 July, 18:00-21:00 | Exhibition: 3 – 19 July 2025 | Microscope, 2-4 Tottenham Road, London E9 7BL.

Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems – Regenerative Practices, Pitching MAS QUEST Projects

4 July 2025, 10:30 – 14:30 | Immersive Exhibition | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, Alumni Pavilion (MM C 78.1).

Aerial view of the flooded area in Antananarivo

Venice Biennale: Designs of Resilient Landscapes for Flood-Prone Areas of Antananarivo

10 May – 23 November 2025 | 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

Redaktionsteam | Editorial Board

Silvia Converso, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Landschaftsarchitektur
Claudia Gebert, Koordinationsstelle NSL, Chefredaktion
Viera Klasovitá, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme (IVT)
Klearjos Papanicolaou, Institut für Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS), Städtebau
Maarten Van Strien, Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung (IRL)

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