Place: Lausanne West
Interview: Ariane Widmer Pham, Chief Planner Lausanne Ouest

The aim of spatial planning is to persuade cantons and communities to work together in developing common living spaces. Borders should not limit the planning of settlements and landscape!

More and more often, we pursue various activities in different communities every day. We commute to work in a different city, drive to the shopping center in a neighboring community or spend our free time across the border in another canton. Increasingly, the settlement areas of neighboring communities are merging. The result of such changes places serious demands on all those who influence the organization of our living spaces.

Many tasks are, and remain, the responsibility of the individual cantons and communities. However, today more challenges could be successfully overcome if there was closer cooperation across community, cantonal and national borders. Cross-border planning enables us to find solutions in the design of living space, for example, to manage transportation issues or to link and upgrade recreational areas. No single authority would be able to find such solutions without help from another. The task of spatial planning is to coordinate regionally significant activities across national, cantonal, and community borders.

Finding solutions across political boundaries and beyond promotes mutual understanding and allows us to take advantage of shared opportunities and protect our common interests. Spatial planning leads to solidarity.