EPFL architects rethink the city-river balance within neighborhoods

Aerial view of the Rhone river in Geneva. EPFL/LAST/N. Sedlatchek. Architects at EPFL have developed a new, multi-criteria evaluation method to support better decision-making for the redevelopment of brownfield sites in Geneva, Sion and elsewhere along the Rhone. The banks of the Rhone are home to acres of urban land ripe for redevelopment. A new paper by architects at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), within EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), puts forth an evaluation method that could help policymakers and practitioners identify the planning priorities and constraints specific to these sites. The study, dubbed Rhodanie Urbaine , is led by Emmanuel Rey (head of LAST), Martine Laprise, and Sara Formery, who carried out the research as part of her PhD thesis.