STL – Spatial Transformation Laboratories

The "Interdisciplinary Project Activity" took the students of the study programme Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems to the “Rhenish Right Bank Corridor” of Cologne in the week before the start of the semester. Many exciting insights were gained during this week, which will be elaborated into an integrated development strategy by the students in the course of the semester.

In Switzerland, a significantly increasing population is faced with scarce space resources for housing development. The efficient use of land represents a constitutional obligation, reinforced when the Spatial Planning Act (Raumplanungsgesetz) was revised by Swiss voters in 2013.

While it is very difficult to define "comfort" or "safety" in space in a general and abstract way, it is very easy for people to judge a certain and concrete situation with regard to the quality of their stay or their feeling of safety, or to judge two situations at a time. The project "Streetwise" in the metropolitan area of Zurich uses new approaches that make use of the above-mentioned circumstance.    

Joris Van Wezemael shows swissinfo the three phases of Swiss spatial planning during a walk. 

Markus Nollert and Joris van Wezemael talk about the future orientation of STL in research and teaching.