Aire

Topographic imagination applied: the award-winning renaturalization design for river Aire near Geneva, Switzerland

South of Geneva, Switzerland, river Aire runs across a plain that for centuries has been agricultural land. From the late 19th century, the waterway has been embanked for flood protection, causing also the gradual loss of habitat for a large variety of plants and animals. In 2001, decisions were taken to re-naturalize the river. Yet rather than to merely reconstruct its former natural bed, Superpositions, the association of firms commissioned with the project, applied topographic imagination, a method termed by American landscape designer Elissa Rosenberg. It combines the embanked channel with a newly designed pasture landscape. The channel indicates a work in progress and serves as a reference line that makes before and after traceable.

This new book documents this much recognized, award-winning renaturalization project with drawings, images of construction work and of the new waterway. Essays and comments by international contributors Jean-Marc Besse, Lorette Coen, Gerorges Descombes, G. Mathias Kondolf, Elissa Rosenberg, Gilles A. Tiberghien, and Marc Treib demonstrate how the restored river Aire has been upgraded to become again a characteristic feature of this landscape on the fringe of the city.

Autorentext
Georges Descombes ist Architekt und Landschaftsarchitekt und lehrt als Professor an der Universität Genf. Gastprofessuren u.a. am Berlage Institut in Amsterdam, an der Harvard Graduate School of Design und der University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Julien Descombes ist Architekt und Landschaftsarchitekt und Mitbegründer des Büros Atelier Descombes Rampini in Genf. Corinne Van Cauwenberghe ist Bauingenieurin und Mitglied der Geschäftsleitung von B+C ingénieurs SA in Genf und Montreux. Vincent Correnti ist Bauingenieur und leitet den Bereich Tiefbau und Strassenbau des Büros ZS ingénieurs civils in Genf. François Gerber ist Umweltingenieur und seit 1995 Mitarbeiter von BIOTEC Biologie appliquée in Delémont.