0687-EM2-EML.CH-2011
Status: Competition (2011)
Clasification: 1 prize
Visualizer: Studio
Scale: 90.000 ㎡ Large
Types: Masterplan, Public space
In the course of just a few decades Emmen has grown from a farming village into a town the size of Sion. But Emmen remains an agglomeration without an old town or a centre. Defining a new use for the Monosuisse site located directly beside the River Emme now offers an opportunity to give the town a centre. The existing buildings in this industrial conglomerate are of impressive quality.
The site is a kind of town within the town. The diversity of volumes, facades and typologies creates highly differentiated open public spaces with a genuinely urban character.
Our project is developed on the basis of four fundamental theses: we postulate:
– Programmatically activating the centre and linking it more effectively to the railway station and other districts.
– Bringing the town to the river by opening up the site.
– Increasing the urban quality on the site and developing it further,
– Preserving the diversity of the existing buildings and strategically expanding it.