Towards a Climatic Union

This project sets up the collective vision of a Climatic Union in Europe, which will put environmental issues back at the center of territorial projects. It links the different regions of the Rhine catchment basin and creates interdependencies between them through the creation of geographical metropolises.

From the Alps to the Delta, the Rhine Geometropolis extends over 1 280 km and proposes to turn today's climate challenges into a positive common vision of the future. Redefining our relationship with ecology, mobility and governance, the project brings a new Rhine dynamic. Through each morpho-region a constellation of interventions at all scales is developed, as a first stone towards the construction of this Geometropolis. The Alpine Rhine is threatened by melting glaciers. A new protective forest has been created to protect inhabited valleys and maintain the soil, which is becoming a valued source of forest production in the wood industry. The High Rhine is exploited by hydroelectric dams that have caused a significant loss of biodiversity. A hiking trail linking Basel to Lake Constance has been created to showcase the dams and create centers of life and sharing between travelers and local residents, stimulating biodiversity. The Upper Rhine is the first navigable morpho-region from the Rhine’s source. The project implements geomobility, an economical and low-energy river transport, to offer a concrete alternative to travel. The Romantic Rhine is a geological region where castles overlook the river. Koblenz, a city located at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle, hosts the first climate assembly of the Climate Union to discuss climate issues. The Lower Rhine has been marked by mining since the early 1800’s. The former Haus Aden mine is being redeveloped as a social housing district by rehabilitating the old infrastructures, providing public spaces. The Rhine Delta, is facing sea level rise and soil salinization. The project redefines an agricultural system by abandoning intensive livestock farming and creating a cooperative based on a network of farms in saline environments with resilient crops. The project illustrates the ability of the geometropolis to irrigate the entire Rhine basin through the geomobility by proposing solutions adapted to the local challenges with an optimistic and poetic state of mind of each morpho-region, while using the climate contexts to rethink the territory.