PERFORMATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

How do we nowadays perceive infrastructure? Infrastructure is not only the network of transport, communication, and utilities; it is a powerful medium of information. The space itself.

Norma space gallery presents dialogue with architects Renate Walter and Sebastian F. Lippok, founders of Swiss-based atelier WALDRAP. The dialogue is based on discussing the social potential of infrastructure as a public space.

In 2019, WALDRAP presented three video works ‘Liquid Projection I-III’ in cooperation with the art gallery BALTSprojects from Zurich. The video visualizes the conversion of the hidden groundwater basins into huge eco-pools accessible to the public. The new public swimming pools are created along the roads that connect Zurich Altstetten with the industrial periphery, providing new ecological spaces for recreation, contemplation, and communing.

In 2019, WALDRAP presented three video works ‘Liquid Projection I-III’ in cooperation with the art gallery BALTSprojects from Zurich. The video visualizes the conversion of the hidden groundwater basins into huge eco-pools accessible to the public. The new public swimming pools are created along the roads that connect Zurich Altstetten with the industrial periphery, providing new ecological spaces for recreation, contemplation, and communing.

NORMA SPACE GALLERY: You discovered existing groundwater basins in the neighborhood of your office. Therefore, the project serves as a concept of discovering and converting hidden infrastructure into accessible urban space. What was the process of discovering these spaces? How did you decide to engage within the infrastructure?

WALDRAP: The Liquid Projection video looks at the urban isolation of Grünau, which, as part of the Altstetten district, is cut off from the rest of the city by the Limmat on the north, the A1H feeder road on the south side and by the Hardhof green space on the west. Then there’s the groundwater field, the actual barrier which lies under the 24-hectare green space of the Hardhof. Strict land use restrictions as well as a monotonous collection of sports facilities are preventing the integration of the industrial district with Altstetten. The current situation, which doesn’t work as either a city park or an inviting sports centre, must be completely rethought.

At first glance, what’s actually spectacular here is hidden from view when crossing the Hardhof green. Three infiltration basins are concealed behind embankments and dense woods. The filtrate from the banks of the Limmat is collected here in three 4,000-square-meter-large basins, where it is drained and then fed back into the groundwater stream. We recommend making this infrastructure accessible to the public. As giant eco-pools, they can serve as places for cooling off, contemplation or sporting activities in the summer months. These facilities, which thus far have served only water treatment purposes, can be upgraded to social infrastructure without much effort. The new swimming park would create a link between the industrial district and Altstetten, which would also reduce crowds at the public swimming areas along the Limmat.

NSG: The work shows the adaptation and transformation of the existing landscape. What do you think about sustainable approaches in architecture and landscape today? How is your office dealing with them? What is your definition of sustainability?

WAR: We try to keep sustainability in mind in all our construction projects, without necessarily making it a hard and fast rule. For example, if a geometrically complex building is the best solution for programmatic or urban planning reasons, it makes little sense to design a wood structure that requires a simply structured, static system. Sustainability and cost-effectiveness would be thrown out of sync. For the Borrweg school, we positioned the main building in such a way as to maximize the flow of cold air through the facility, which counteracts overheating of the urban area. This positioning also made sense from an urban planning perspective. Planning for sustainability is thus always a delicate balance that requires weighing a variety of factors to determine what’s right for the site and the project.

NSG: The new public swimming pools are created along the roads that connect Zurich Altstetten with the industrial periphery, providing new ecological spaces for recreation, contemplation, and communing. Is that correct? In your practice, are you often working on the projects located in the urban part of the city or also dealing with the periphery? What is the contextual difference, is there a contradiction?

WAR: Zurich West used to be a peripheral industrial zone. Numerous residential and commercial projects over the last decade have finally connected it to the city. The point is that there is no opportunity for it to expand further west. By transforming in into an attractive public park, the potential of a westward expansion is opened up.

For us as architects in Switzerland, the industrial periphery has been creeping closer and closer to the city, and in many places the two areas have already merged. This heterogeneity, where the city once ended and rural communities begin, is extremely exciting and naturally full of contradictions. You’ll find traditional village structures, single family homes, highways, commercial areas and shopping centres – often against a spectacular mountain backdrop. These places represent a new urban culture that must provide a high level of living, working and accommodation quality in the future.!

The periphery is a suburban context that is ubiquitous for all of us. Mentally and physically, we find ourselves constantly in that middle space between city and country, even though we’re involved in two very concrete urban planning projects (Innovation Park Biel/Bienne and the Borrweg school in Zurich).

NSG: Our current topic is the social aspect of the infrastructure. The word ‘infrastructure’ creates very often associations with the network of transportation, communication, or utilities. But today it is also a powerful medium of information. The space itself.

WAR: In the recent book of Keller Easterling Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space (Verso, 2014), the infrastructure space becomes a manipulative medium of information in global politics. ‘Some of the most radical changes to the globalizing world are being written, not in the language of the law and diplomacy, but in these infrastructural technologies’, as she wrote it. Then, in the book Infrastructure as Space (Ruby Press, edited by Ilka Ruby and Andreas Ruby), there is a contemporary collage of the essays writing on the different aspects of infrastructure, expanding our knowledge of infrastructure not only as a technical, but also as a political, economic, social, and even aesthetic matter.

NSG: In your proposal, the hidden infrastructure is used as the main design medium. What do you think about this kind of role?

WAR: Hidden infrastructure is a major issue in Switzerland. Due to their powerful impact on the social and rural landscape, there is always a tendency to try to bury public works. Add to that the fact that what we as architects find aesthetically pleasing is not seen by many people as beautiful. The scarcity of land resources, a long history of tunnel projects and the relationship to underground shelters lead us to want to bury everything here. In addition, these structures serve only a singular function, which is hard to combine with a public agenda. For the infiltration basins, which, although hidden, do emerge visibly, there is a multi-use opportunity in both a technical and social aspect.

NSG: The splashing water, the train passing by, children playing around, sunbathing people, swimmers in the pool, birds in the trees, people walking by... Watching the video and listening to the sound, I felt like the project is alive and real. Certainly, it has some therapeutic positive vibes. Is video your preferable medium in the presentation of your projects?

WAR: For these clips, we shot the existing groundwater basins from the air. The people were filmed from above the bathing areas in Zurich; we then clipped the images and laid them over the drone images of the pools. What is very simple to do with a singular image in Photoshop is a major task with three 90-second videos.

As an architect, acquiring these technical skills is both costly and time-consuming. However, for many projects it’s a worthwhile investment, especially when it allows you to take a concept to another sensory level. We also feel that videos can strongly influence how well-received a project is. On Instagram, for example, such videos aren’t very effective - they’re too long and appear too small on mobile displays. You need enough space to show moving images in large format. In the BALTSprojects gallery, the user walked through the imaginary world of the pools while shrouded in an emerald-green aura. This stimulated multiple sensory levels and, for many, also had positive therapeutic effects.

NSG: Can you tell us the story of your cooperation with BALTSprojects and Monika Annen? What was the reaction of people to the video project?

WAR: Our office was in the direct vicinity of Monica’s gallery. The idea of exhibiting in Monica’s space was always there. However, in the case of a WALDRAP exhibit, it had to be a free work, not a set of architectural projects. We wanted to paint a bigger picture that reflected our area of interest. When we starting shooting for Liquid Projection, we still didn’t know how we wanted to display these images. Once we started testing the clips in Monica’s gallery, it quickly dawned on us that this was the perfect place to showcase the project before an audience.

The genuineness of the clips required explanations to the audience members. Unlike artists, architects always have to explain their work. Few people are familiar with these groundwater basins. Seeing them from above further accentuates this unfamiliarity. The fact that these were video collages, i.e., images that are not quite real, led to some astonishment – followed by the question, “Does that really work?”

NSG: What aspects make the project complex? Does 100% complexity exist? Have you ever reached it?

WAR: Generally speaking, we’re not at all interested in complexity. A project should always have a clear purpose, be easily readable and move you on a formal, aesthetic level. Achieving this coherence is challenging and, in this sense, perhaps complex.

NSG: What about the sustainable continuation of the project? Have you managed to contact the city council by showing the video work and discussing the project for its possible further implementation and realization?

Water supply in cities is a thorny issue. Local agencies are not keen on providing information or showing enthusiasm for plans that could threaten safety. What’s interesting is that the water from the area around the banks of the Limmat is collected in these basins before it is filtered through numerous layers in the earth and fed back into the groundwater. Because people swim in the Limmat, it’s practically collective bathwater. From a purely functional perspective, there is nothing about this type of use that would hinder its role as a swimming spot. Liquid Projection is not an argument for a possible implementation but rather a way to show how technical infrastructure can have community uses as well.

NSG: Could you share with us some of your ongoing projects and interests? Something that makes you enthusiastic.

WAR: One project that is near and dear to our hearts and that we definitely want to implement is the Marina Tiefenbrunnen. In 2018, we won a competition for a new harbour in Zurich. It’s an infrastructure project par excellence – a harbour for everyone, which will enhance the recreational area of the Lake Zurich basin with a 200-meter-long and 17-meter-wide public pier.

The existing harbour is hidden infrastructure in the broadest sense. Until now, only members of the aquatic sports clubs have been allowed use of the harbour. With the construction of a new aquatic sports centre, a restaurant-bar, 450 boat slips and the main pier, the harbour facility will be strongly geared towards public use. The challenge is bringing the interests of water sports enthusiasts, recreationists, residents and nature lovers all under one roof. After all, if we’re building for everyone, then everyone should be part of the plan.

NSG: Thank you.