Les Argovies – Identity of the In-Between

A strategy for the synchronous development of landscape and settlement areas.

Official projections indicate a marked rise in the population of the canton of Aargau within the next 20 years. If the rate of growth continues steadily, the urban sprawl taking place in spite of land use planning efforts will lead to irrevocable destruction of the area’s roots, namely the landscape. Based on an analysis of the differ-ent landscape regions characterizing the Aargau area, the Bibergeil Group prepared alternative development strategies. Composed of the architecture and landscape architecture firms Studio Vulkan from Zurich, Liechti Graf Zumsteg from Brugg, Meier Leder from Baden, and Schneider & Schneider from Aarau, the group exem-plifies how selective growth can be used to develop both landscape and settlement in dialogue with each other and how identity-generating living environments can be created. From urban sprawl to selective growth, the Bibergeil Group demands a specific and synchronous development of settlement and landscape in the Aargau area. With designs such as the Hero Principle, the Chain of Cities, and the Forest City of Lenzburg, architects and landscape architects propose a possible spatial development for the Aargau area in the study “Les Argovies – Identity of the In-Between.”