Gotthard Landscape – a digital journey through the alpine massiv

Numerous stories and myths are associated with the Gotthard landscape. In the collective visual memory of Switzerland, the Gotthard is anchored as an integral part of the Alps, not as a mountain but as an Alpine transition. Historical traces from a wide variety of eras testify to its importance as a passage between political and economic centers where different cultural areas meet.

Round table on the Gotthard as an infrastructure landscape:

The Gotthard, iconic landscapes meet state-of-the-art infrastructure. The three-dimensional point cloud model makes the complex structures of the famous massif physically perceptible and visible in a unique way. What new possibilities does this open up in landscape planning and spatial modeling?

Impulse speech by Dr Chris Luebkeman (ETH Foresight)

Round table on the cultural heritage of the Gotthard landscape:

The development of the Gotthard passage through roads and tunnels characterizes the appearance of the alpine terrain. The digital representations make it possible to place existing structures of different traffic generations in one and the same picture. What do we read from their artful, transparent texture? What contribution can this form of documentation make to determining the cultural significance of the landscape?

Moderation Isabelle Fehlmann
Hans Danuser (Artist & Fotograf)
Prof. Dr. Michael Jakob (HEPIA)
Prof. Dr. Marion Sauter (Berner Fachhochschule)
Dr. Erika Flückiger Strebel (ASTRA)

The exhibition presents the latest results of an overarching research project that was launched fifteen years ago at the Professorship Girot. The focus is on a point cloud model of the alpine region, which has been continuously expanded and refined up to the new NEAT base tunnel. We have already presented various stages of development to the public, including in 2014 together with the Accademia di architettura Mendrisio at the Architecture Biennale in Venice. The heart of the current exhibition shows a journey through the digital landscape of the Gotthard from south to north. Above-ground rock formations, forests, villages, mountain passes, galleries and underground tunnels are placed in one and the same image, creating a new, poetic spatial experience.

 

Working with point cloud technology to convey and analyze complex spatial structures has a long tradition at our chair. Their light aesthetics combined with georeferenced accuracy allows a terrain to be accurately recorded with all its existing traces of development. Therefore, we use this technique as a central tool for our design teaching and research in landscape architecture.

 

The “Gotthard Landscape” project thus combines two target levels: the communication level, on which the digital model of the mountain massif can be viewed, listened to and flown through in a freely accessible manner, and the research level, on which new data and information are continuously integrated and combined. To this day, the interplay of mighty summit worlds with the most modern transport infrastructure nourishes the symbolism of Helvetic identity on the Gotthard. With our work, we want to contribute to preserving the landscape, which is important for the national heritage, in the diversity of its historical facets for the future.

The helical tunnels near Wassen became popular symbols of engineering masterpieces: the curves carved into the rock made it possible to overcome a height difference of around 200 meters by rail over a short distance. The passengers experience them through the circular movements of the train, but they remain largely hidden from the eye. The transparent display with point clouds makes the characteristic circular structure visible in the surrounding landscape. The image relates the helical tunnels to their visual counterpart, the Wassen church. Enthroned on a rock, she appears three times from different heights, perspectives and even changing sides in front of the train windows. This made the church, built in 1734, one of the most famous landmarks when traveling on the Gotthard Railway.

«Transport Hub Göschenen»

Different streams flow through Göschenen, whose porters block the narrow valley. With the opening of the Gotthard railway around 1882, the community of Uri became a milestone before the train entered the tunnel and only left again in southern Airolo. From 1980, another traffic channel bored its way through the mountain massif with the Autobahn Tunnel. The cantonal road to the pass and the Schöllenenbahn form further strands of the junction. Last but not least, the Reuss, a natural river, flows down the valley through Göschenen.

“Devil’s Bridge and other Traffic History Layers”

 

Due to the geographical conditions, the Gotthard has had strategic spatial significance as a passage between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean since the Middle Ages. Its development was tackled at different times according to the possibilities of the time. Still existing structures of different traffic generations are valuable testimonies of this. Here we see these layers in one and the same image. The traffic landscape of the Gotthard is characterized by the contrast between the old pass roads, which work their way up the terrain and the tunnel structures, which pave their way through the massif on a route that is as flat and straight as possible.

«Mountain Pass Threshold»

The picture shows the historic group of houses at the top of the pass. The old Sust, the former economic building of the mules, now houses a museum – as does the Sasso da Pigna fortress. They convey the history of the Gotthard between national symbol, military réduit and terrain of touristic and industrial developments. In addition to the historical traces, there are dam walls and wind turbines flanking the road at the top of the pass. As in the past, the Gotthard will also have a role to play in the future.