Peri-urban residential neighbourhoods at the margins of current trends in urban growth: towards sustainable transition paths ?

In Switzerland as in most european countries, the last decades of urban development have put much pressure on the environment due to uncontrolled urban sprawl. The existing peripheral residential built-up areas mostly composed of single-family houses are responsible for and subjected to many sustainability issues, which are expected to grow in the short/medium term. focusing on urban and architectural design, this on-going research investigates possible paths for the future of peri-urban neighbourhoods of single-family houses by 2050. The paper presents the intermediary results of several test-applications of prospective scenarios developed for two case studies in the urban region of lausanne, Switzerland. first, this article briefly introduces the research framework of the peri- urban question in Switzerland by highlighting the specificities of the policy and territorial contexts. Second, it describes the design framework, focusing on the elaboration of a typology of peri-urban neighbourhoods of single-family houses used as a preoperational tool to guide the design process. The core of the paper then focuses on the conceptual elaboration of four prospective scenarios foreseeing possible evolutions for peri-urban neighbourhoods of single-family houses. To illustrate this approach, test-applications – in terms of urban and architectural design – are conducted in two existing neighbourhoods. finally, a limited list of indicators on density, land use and environmental impacts helps assessing the performances of each applied prospective scenario. The scenarios seek to be operational and feasible in a way to provide a decision support. The preliminary conclusions of the study highlight several initial conditions to bring peri-urban neighbourhoods on a path towards sustainability transitions.