Switzerland - an urban portrait
An example of summarising and mapping information.
Exploring place identity
Switzerland – An Urban Portrait is a result of a four-year study by ETH Studio Basel that investigated the socio –economic and spatial profile of the country through a series of maps, plans, diagrams and images.
Over the course of the project 141 ETH students carried out 67 studies of sub-regions of Switzerland, to “create as clear a picture as possible of the actual state of urbanisation” across the country and “work out the hidden deficits, pressures and potentials behind it”.
The work is seen as not just creating a comprehensive evidence base but importantly as a stimulus for further thinking and design.
Various socio-economic and spatial data sets were mapped out and analysed, including:
- Settlements structure / pattern
- Density pattern
- Predominant land use pattern
- Economic activity centres
- Economic growth and productivity (across new and old economic sectors)
- Average income per capita
- Commuter regions and pattern
- Movement/transport network
- Media coverage
- Significant institutions, education, financial, international, VIPs
- Cultural facilities, shopping centres
- Forests, agricultural areas
One of the illustrations from the portrait of the Geneva-Lousanne sub-region maps its nationally and internationally renown institutions, corporate headquarters, schools, cultural institutions but also residences of its wealthy international clientele. This illustrates the fact that the area is an important research, financial and the centre of many international organisations, as well as rich and famous people’s playground and tax refuge - a place that those that have the choice, relocate to and stay in.