Collect. Keep. Pass on. It can do all that: A sponge. A sponge in the heart of the city. 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 hard hit by climate change. They are often five to ten degrees Celsius warmer than their surrounding areas. Today, green spaces are an important factor in urban planning in all parts of Switzerland. The Lausanne of the future will be a sponge city in which plants and soil retain water and ensure increased evaporative cooling.

Sponge over it! allows new life to develop 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, construction site. Sponge meets asphalt, human meets object. Only what is first sown, nurtured, accompanied can grow. And change can only come about if you initiate it, dare to criticize and discuss it, enter into dialogue. Sponge over it! shows what is going on inside. A visualization of what lies at the heart of everything, beneath our feet, the city's water reservoir. A basis that takes up new space, that becomes present on a new surface 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! is a temporary and processual intervention that takes up and gives space. For a discourse on climate change, the use of finite resources, especially water, and the need for change.

Client: Fondation Plateforme 10
Cooperation: Barbara Marie Hofmann
Partner: Ville de Lausanne, Association Jardin Urbain, Canton de Vaud

Picture credits: BÖE studio, Notter + Vigne

Publications, among others:
Baunetz Wissen
Hochparterre