Crossing the border between Strasbourg and Kehl

Situated in the Rhine basin, the nature of the Franco-German border is to be natural, materialized by the Rhine, canalized and industrialized international river. In Strasbourg, it has been the place of confrontation of several ideologies being the center of many changes. This boundary is therefore double, both physical and symbolic.

This border, which has always been attractive because of its economic potential, but neglected because of its dangerousness, presents real land opportunities today. These places formerly developed as peripheral areas can today be elements of continuity and centrality whose renewal requires a global cross-border vision. I chose to consider this place as a cross-border territory, with a multitude of layers. In this context, from a "border-line" to a "border-place", how can landscaping be a tool to transgress the border? What new urban forms and governance modes would this initiate in order to assert cross-border identities? From the richness and the complexity of the dynamics present on my study site, I decided to break it down into three themes: the cross-border territory, common base of the two countries, the Rhine basin, the Rhine river and the Rhine alluvial forests, the port city with the imminent arrival of the city near the Port and finally the Alsace Cooperative, the headquarters of the emblematic company which is today abandoned. My project proposals then dealt with the memory, the deletion and the transgression of the notions of border within the Rhine basin, city-port relation and cooperation within the public space.