Tom Weiss will present several results of the research driven by the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in the context of the national research program 54 (PNR 54): how to develop villa zones in a durable way?

The research stemmed from the observation that given their current form, villa zones are mainly to blame for urban sprawl, consumption of surface areas, waste of energy and rise of traffic in agglomerations. Yet, an individual home seems to represent the ideal of a vast part of the population, at least during given times of their life. How to conciliate the existing and prospective villa zones with goals of durable urbanisation? The research underlines the potential of individual houses in relation to these goals.

This research allows to discuss the hypothesis that villa zones can conform to the goals of sustainable urban development if the conditions of land development law change and if these zones assume further and specific functions: ecological functions, a more efficient use of existant infrastructures, transformation of lifestyle and housing conditions.

Conference speaker

Tom Weiss is an architect. He holds diplomas from the HES of Bienne and the Berlage Institute of Rotterdam. He is currently a researcher at the Zentrum Urban Landscape of the Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Winterthur.

Photographic credits : Marylise Doctrinal, “Clonage”. Contract : CC 2.0.