Stories of Alpine Commons
Sebastian Reinicke
Nicolas Seiler
Together, we are a team of architects and designers who examine processes of gradual change and adaptation of social and cultural phenomena within energy cultural landscapes. The team was formed at E-Werk Luckenwalde, a cultural space located in an old coal factory outside of Berlin. There, our common interest in the social and cultural realities of sites for energy production emerged. Through film and public interventions, we aim to foster discourse between rural communities that are most affected by energy landscapes and the urban population. Sebastian studied Architecture at the University of Arts in Berlin, focusing on sustainable futures. Livni and Nicolas both studied at Design Academy Eindhoven, focusing on how crises of our time affect traditional crafts and labor.
For most of his life, her grandfather drove up cattle to the alpine pastures collectively with the people of their town. They spent the spring together freeing blocked roads from landslides & avalanches, as well as tending to the landscape. Years later, a growing company had carried out a plan to build a dam & flood the pasture, on which her grandfather had spent years together with his community. He swore to never return to the flooded pasture, to keep his memory of the pasture unaltered. Growing up, she had always enjoyed visiting the lake that had been created by the dam, where her father now worked. Over time, she finally convinced her grandfather to go see this beautiful lake, though once there, her grandfather could no longer hold back tears. She tries to reassure him of the lake’s beauty, but he replies that she does not know what once was.
During a month-long field research trip, this story was told to us in an interview by a resident of the small, alpine village of Guttannen, Switzerland. Through film, we have been documenting our research on the influence of the regional hydropower company, on landscape, culture & tradition. We have identified a metabolic rift that is growing over generations, a silenced conflict, & learned about a centuries-old system of communal work. This system was established to maintain a symbiotic relationship between farming & landscape, which became a structure for social & environmental resilience.
In cooperation with the village of Guttannen, we are organising a shoot for the end of May, about the resolution of the non-monetary currency, Tagwannen, measured in hours of communal labor. Furthermore, having been accepted for the Furka Residency, we will be working on a publication this summer to summarise our research & investigate ways on how to communicate communal systems & their balanced relationship with nature. There are a myriad of facets to explore on energy infrastructures, as we feel this is only the beginning for us.
