Architectures of foam

Due to the already noticeable effects of climate change, sustainable action is mandatory. The forecasted demographic shift in Switzerland (age-structure change & migration) will reignite the discussion on future forms of cohabitation. This debate will not take place on «the greenfield» but within the existing patchwork of the urban sprawl. Questions of efficient land use, heterogeneous programs, and urban development within the existing structure are examined in the project. The proposed urbanism through architecture transforms randomly created spaces into alternative spatial sequences.

This work examines the urban sprawl in Switzerland. The area between the municipalities of Horw, Kriens, and Lucerne serves as a case study. The title "Architectures of Foam" refers to «Foams», the third volume of Peter Sloterdijk's Spheres trilogy. In this book, the German philosopher writes a history of mankind centered on the question of cohabitation. At the same time, the term «foam» is a metaphor for the spatial phenomenon of urban sprawl. Like natural foam, this space continuously reshapes itself. The friction or tension generated in this process is recognized as a potential. The projects speculative perspective transforms the unintentionally occupied, the randomly emerged spaces into a multi-layered potential. The work consists of a theoretical reflection and a project part. The project part interprets and expands three large-scale residential developments in the urban sprawl around Lucerne. It refers to underground infrastructures, such as road tunnels or parking garages, and transforms these structures into new urban spatial sequences. This approach reveals new, perhaps unusual, relationships between architecture and infrastructure. The theoretical reflection explores existing spatial conditions in the urban sprawl, seeking urban phenomena such as collisions, deformations, entanglements, or despite. This reflection culminates in a speculation that extends the project. The collages open up perspectives on surreal urban spaces. The result is convergence, dynamism, and ambiguity – a diffuse terrain. Non-hierarchicaly and endlessly – foaming.