Ski lift

2009

The strategy adopted is a rereading of potential, an accentuation rather than a profound transformation of existing balances. The key to urban renewal is to find specific responses to each case and not to apply a generic solution to the town. This attitude is reflected in the pursuit of minimum impact, both programmatic and architectural. The natural landscape is the driving force of the project, both in its layout, which uses the changes in level, and in taking advantage of the light and the views. As the spine of the project, the rock act as a focus for pedestrian and car access, and for half the dwellings. It follows the natural relief. The plots mark out the site and provide different ways of living, from collective to individual. The car park benefits from the qualities of the views and the light.

2011-

Conceived autonomously, with no preestablished hierarchy, the project entities – rocks, plots and woodland – are superimposed not cumulatively or causally, but complexly and unpredictably. The project was designed as a system, not an object. This approach was tested in the subsequent process, during a phase corresponding to a public development aid programme, involving the municipality, planning offices and architects.

This process of negotiation with the real required the integration of numerous regulatory, budgetary, typological and ecological (Minergie) contingences without losing the original qualities of the competition project: Diversity of routes, typological mix, flexibility, natural land preserved (internal street), woodland project.

La Chaux-de-Fonds municipality owns the land, but does not itself want to invest in the development: that is why, on the basis of specifications arising from the study commission given to the winning team and to civil engineers, a call for investment tenders is to be launched. This process can take quite a long time, since investors need to assess the economic potential of developing this site. The implementation and timing of the next stage of the operation will therefore depend on its potential advantage to property developers.