Urban Meadows 
Airolo Artery
Studying under Herzog & de Meuron, and later under the sociologist Christian Schmid, I understood that the sciences of the city must catch up with the study of human culture. “Cities must attract people,” the professors said; but was urban culture not too vast to be understood?
Urban Meadows proposes a vision for MetroBasel that unites the dynamics of urban life with the lifecycles of the Rhine. The city adapts to the waxing and waining of the river, rather than being built to contain them. The river overflows, nurturing the meadows, as it used to do before they fell to industrialization. Cities north of Basel can thus regain their identity as meadow cities.
Airolo Artery is an urban vision for the Gotthard, the most-crossed Swiss mountain pass, and for Airolo, a settlement at this great traffic artery. Economically, Airolo depends on the people traveling through the mountains. However, those millions of travelers in their cars are barely aware that they are passing through Airolo. The social spaces of village and highway function in two distinct ways. Over the course of history, changes in transportation methods led to adaptive changes in the social spaces of the village. Today, the village must adapt again. The gas stops flourish, and this success should also reach those in need in the village.
Text and images: Dan C. Baciu ©