A sponge in the heart of the city. One that stores the water we need
to sustainably preserve the city as a green living space, for our present and our future. Cities are particularly affected by climate change. They are often five to ten degrees Celsius warmer than their surrounding areas. Green spaces are now an important factor in urban planning throughout Switzerland. The Lausanne of the future will be a sponge city, where plants and soil retain water and provide increased evaporative cooling.

The sponge compensates for the lost water reservoir on the sealed floor of Plateforme 10. It makes it possible to create and maintain new life for plants and insects where it would otherwise not be possible. So we placed a sponge on top, not to cover the sealed floor, but to show its significance and make it visible, while at the same time benefiting the environment and the people who visit.

The museum acts as a laboratory. The circulators act as carriers of the medium, the sponge, in which new life emerges and nature can regain the upper hand. We focus on the process of building, planting, growing, caring, testing and the interaction between the object and the people involved.

Instead of using energy to move the circulators, they form the basis of the sponge. They themselves are an imprint of what lies beneath the now sealed ground, which already provides a habitat for insects. Together, new species can settle on Plateforme 10.

The sponge will have no long-term impact on the circulator. It is designed as a temporary and easily movable object. After its time at MUDAC, when it is fully grown and thriving, it will be moved to another location and planted, and the existing base will resume its original function. Together, they raise the question of artificiality and nature.

Collect. Retain. Pass on. All this can be done by a sponge.

A sponge in the heart of the city. One that stores the water we need to sustainably preserve the city as a green living space, for our present and our future. Cities are particularly affected by climate change. They are often five to ten degrees Celsius warmer than their surrounding areas. Green spaces are now an important factor in urban planning throughout Switzerland. The Lausanne of the future will be a sponge city, where plants and soil retain water and provide increased evaporative cooling.

Schwamm drüber! Passons l’éponge ! creates new life where old life is no longer possible. Green on asphalt. Something that grows. From the bottom up, from the inside out. In the middle of a public space, between museum, visitors and construction site. Sponge meets asphalt, human meets object. Only what is first sown, nurtured and accompanied can grow. And change can only come about if you initiate it, dare to criticise and engage in discourse, enter into dialogue. Schwamm drüber! Passons l’éponge ! shows what is going on inside. It reveals what lies beneath everything, beneath our feet, the city‘s water reservoir. A foundation that takes up new space, that becomes present on new surfaces and in everyday life. A laboratory of germinating change that reveals its own process and invites negotiation and participation. A project as a substrate of society.

Schwamm drüber! Passons l’éponge ! is a temporary and processual intervention that takes up space and gives space. For a discourse on climate change, the use of finite resources, especially water, and the necessity of change.

In cooperation with: Barbara Marie Hofmann
Partner: Ville de Lausanne, Association Jardin, Urbain Canton de Vaud

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