It is a well-known fact that urban expansion consumes land and threatens cultural landscapes. The legislative separation of the buildable and non-buildable areas has proven to be only partially effective in protecting the landscape from ongoing construction. In the last decades, urban sprawl in agricultural communes could not be stopped, nor slowed down.

On the southern shores of Lake Constance, a largely intact agricultural landscape is increasingly consumed by urban networks, affecting the identity of the entire region. At the same time, many people are seeking opportunities for new urban lifestyles that offer contact with the earth and agricultural production. These trends outline a new kind of hybrid lifestyle which could form a potential for the creation of new settlement forms and economies in the cultural landscape. 

Based on Switzerland: An Urban Portrait, this study presents new forms of living and working on Lake Constance’s southern shores. What initially appeared to be a paradox—urban growth and the simultaneous protection of cultivated land—can be turned into a solution. By careful development of both the built and the unbuilt land, the cultural landscape will no longer be threatened, but rather transformed into a new and more stable form.