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soil and legacy

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category
location
year
architecture


collaborators
publication

research
airolo, switzerland
2025
-


merlin ehlers, lorenzo franceschini, paul dillier
published in trans magazine ed. spolia: trans 46. zurich: gta verlag, 2025

the gotthard road tunnel project, which connects uri and ticino, illustrates a conflict between development and preservation. large amounts of rock must be removed in order to build a new passageway beneath the alps for a second tunnel. however, this material is repurposed, embodying a contemporary form of spolia: gravel from the core of the mountains is utilized for urnersee landscape restoration and the concrete walls of the tunnel.

does this approach actually lessen the environmental cost of extraction, or does it obscure the more profound effects of land reshaping? it is ironic to alter nature in one place in order to protect it in another. the gotthard, which was once thought to be the center of europe, where rivers flow to distant seas, is now a place of reinvention. as we clear ground for new infrastructure, we need to consider how changing the land affects our relationship with nature and history. in building the future, what do we leave behind?

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copyright rasmus ehlers, merlin ehlers 2026