Innsbruck, May 13, 2024 – The series of events “Focus Switzerland-Tyrol: Sustainable Alpine Region” invited visitors to an exhibition and panel discussion on the ATP Campus in Innsbruck. In the discussion entitled “Regional Planning or Land Management?” experts from Switzerland, Austria, and Germany exchanged views on the challenges of land use planning in these three countries.
Podium discussion “Regional Planning or Land Management?”
Only 13% of Tyrol can be cultivated. And the situation is similar in many Swiss cantons. This was the subject of the podium discussion “Regional Planning or Land Management?” which was moderated by the ATP CEO and Swiss Honorary Consul Christoph M. Achammer. The invited participants were Robert Ortner (Head of the Department of Regional Planning and Statistics of the Province of Tyrol), Maarit Felicitas Ströbele (Editor of Landschaft Hochparterre, Verlag für Architektur, Planung und Design), Stephan Reiss-Schmidt (Retired City Council Director and Co-Initiator for Social Land Rights, Munich), and Samuel Kissling (Head of Law, EspaceSuisse). The experts discussed the regional planning challenges in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, shedding special light on the economic, ecological, and sociological perspectives.
“A total of 13% of Tyrol is cultivated land, which means that it can be used for growing food or building. The natural result of certain architectural solutions is that the area of land lost to transport infrastructure is far greater than that needed by the building,” explained Christoph M. Achammer
At the end of the discussion, Christoph M. Achammer asked the speakers to express one wish regarding the issue. Robert Ortner’s objective is that “when we use the land or the surface of the Earth, we should do so as purposefully, as attractively, as sensibly, and as sustainably as possible.” In Austria, we are still cautious in terms of new land-use models and regional planning concepts due to strict property rights. In Switzerland, on the other hand, legal innovations mean that the first solutions in this area are already possible. These intervene in the value of land. Despite these first solutions, however, it is still important to Samuel Kissling that “the next generation internalizes a social, environmentally- and climate-friendly, and just approach to land.”
Exhibition: “Constructive Alps 2022”
The series of events opened with the travelling exhibition “Sustainable Architecture from Ljubljana to Nice – Constructive Alps 2022”. This presents the best entries to the architectural competition of the same name. This was organized by Switzerland and Liechtenstein as a contribution to the Alpine Convention. The stands for the exhibition panels were designed by Paul Ohnmacht, Head of Design in Innsbruck, in such a way that they will be able to remain as seats below the chestnut trees in the small park after the exhibition. This can be visited on the ATP Campus in Innsbruck until June 9, 2024.
