HS 2025: Slow Water: Exploring Keyline Design in Switzerland
Slow Water: Exploring Keyline Design in Switzerland (052-0739-00L)
Elective for Master of Landscape Architecture (MScLA)
Thursdays, 15:45 – 17:30
HIT H51
2 ECTS
Stefan Breit, breit@arch.ethz.ch
In this seminar, students will explore landscape-based approaches for climate resilience. We focus our investigation on Keyline design, a practice of slowing down and distributing water across the landscape. Over the course of the semester, students will document and develop real-world design ideas for Keyline systems on agricultural land in the Jurapark Aargau. The seminar is part of the project “Reallabor Jurapark Aargau”, a collaboration between ETH Zürich and the Jurapark Aargau.
Students will critically examine traditional and pioneering approaches of landscape regeneration. This will enable them to develop an understanding of designing living systems involving water, soil, animals, vegetation, and land cultivation. Students will learn to design Keyline systems and to embed their design ideas into the context of real farms in the Jurapark Aargau. Through presentations, discussions, workshops and excursions, students will co-develop design ideas together with local stakeholders, such as the people who own and cultivate the land.
