10 – 2014

The street as habitat

In Switzerland the streets are often narrower and the cars wider, heavier and faster than elsewhere; the often invoked density stress is tangible not only when travelling by commuter train but also in street traffic. Therefore the street in Switzerland is an ideological battleground: when the subject of discussion is unhindered driving the debate often turns irrational. And the representatives of the individual interest groups—motorists or bicyclists, public transportation planners and the disabled—dig in their heels in a determined struggle to defend or secure their particular concerns. family-friendly park in a neighbourhood. Switzerland maintains its infrastructure in perfect condition: billions of francs are spent annually on renovating and extending the streets and the underground network of services. Zurich landscape architect Jacqueline Parish argues that if just a small amount of these sums—and of the planning work involved—were to be spent on improving living conditions and design, then cities and towns would look very different. In Switzerland the enormous leverage of investment in construction below ground level is far too rarely used to create real design quality. We show successful approaches and round them off with two very different looks at public space—in Kyōto and in Lausanne.