Kategorie: Allgemein

Written by Sven Schneider

On a Thursday morning, our group explored Emmen, a municipality with different structural qualities, ranging from higher trafficked streets with storefronts hosted in modernist buildings to single-family home neighborhoods. This reflection is based mainly on material related to structures instead of interactions since we did not meet a lot of people during our fieldwork, and when we did, we also lacked a bit of experience in engaging with pedestrians in an insightful manner.

Through Emmen runs a main traffic axis, occasionally slightly elevated to the living areas. The environment and the people within it have to give way to the traffic that flows through Emmen, on a street with a gradient, leading up to the point where it meets the sky. And along the way: a notable high amount of hairdressers, beauty salons, and travel agents.

In contrast to the main traffic axis, we found a different environment in one of the living areas. It felt cleaner and quieter. But also, in this seemingly unexciting environment, there were some surprising hints.

From this experience, I take the impression that Emmen has been designed primarily to drive through but not necessarily to live in. Furthermore, the observations left me with multiple (related?) questions, with some of which I would like to end this reflection.

• How does it come that there is such a homogenous service offering? Is there a demand for that from the people living in Emmen?
• Why are some single-family homes signaling a longing to be protected?
• As some infrastructure seems poorly maintained, is there an issue related to low-tax incomes?
• And what would all that imply for a transition towards renewable energy?

In order to familiarize myself with the municipality of Emmen, so that I could better understand the surroundings, the people and the conditions, I actively engaged with this place for the first time. After my tour of the community, I found that it has much more to offer than I expected and does not live up to its rather poor reputation. Emmen has just about everything you need, and it seems that the focus is on local and family-owned businesses in all sorts of industries. In addition to shopping opportunities, Emmen has a large industrial area including schools, very good transport links to the city of Lucerne, many residential neighbourhoods, as well as green spaces for families and the like.

To get a feel for the services and talk to the locals about their lives as residents of Emmen, I took the opportunity to get my hair cut at one of many hair salons and have a coffee at the local bakery. I learned that Emmen is a place where tradition still plays an important role, as many shopkeepers only accept cash as payment and mainly advise regular customers. With so many local stores, competition seems to be quite high, especially when it comes to grocery shopping and hairdressing services. Overall, it was very important to observe and interact with the community and its residents to get a feel for the place we are trying to understand and focus not only on its challenges but more importantly on its people.

Tamara Jeggli

Link to Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVODr53Fw=/

By Michelle Arocha

I only knew „Emmen“ as a highway exit sign before starting my studies at HSLU. Unfortunately, it also took me almost a year to get to know Emmen a little. It was during the project „Design of Emmenpark – Design & Participation with Augmented Reality“, which took place within the scope of an IDA module, that I started to realize that the surrounding area of the university was defined by more than just construction sites. During the project, we dealt intensively with the (re)design of the Emmenpark and worked in exchange with cooperation partners of the municipality of Emmen and LuzernNord to develop design concepts and strategies for the public park design. I learned that the whole area is meant to become a smart city and saw a lot of potential in the municipality.

Now, almost a year later, the task was to discover Emmen. My group and I took a walk around Emmen last week with the objective of not only staring blankly ahead like I usually do but also taking a look around. Emmen felt rather lonely in the streets to me; I did not see many people hanging out outside or walking around. On the contrary, I observed a large number of cars and traffic. We quickly realized that asking our questions regarding energy in Emmen was somewhat awkward, and we did not want to overwhelm the one individual we saw heading towards us with our questions.

So, we started to look where we could go inside. We passed by a lot of hair salons and ended up speaking with a few people at one of Emmen’s 29 (!!!) hair salons. The interactions with the individuals were pleasant, however, there was occasionally a language barrier, which led us to discover that Emmen employs a number of foreigners. Later, we went to a bakery and failed again with our intention of finding out more about their energy consumption. Instead, we treated ourselves to a delicious pastry and exchanged information about Emmen’s bakeries with the lady who worked there.

I still see a lot of potential in Emmen, and look forward to strolling through the area in a few years and discovering everything that is new and maybe talking to some of the people again!

A conversational experiment

As I strolled around the city center of Emmen on Friday the 18^th of March, I had a clear goal in mind – I wanted to talk to people and learn more about the rather unknown Municipality and it’s issues related to the topic of energy. In this process, I made one vital realization.

While subjects like the current disputes between Russia and Ukraine or the covid crisis are ever-present conversation topics, others are less common. One of them is the topic of Energy.

As an individual who is not very familiar with the technicalities of energy-related issues, I had to go through intense research to get a broad overview of the topic. But when approaching the task of discovering Emmen’s energy-related issues by talking to locals, I assumed that it would not be very hard to spontaneously approach people and explore their views on the topic of energy as part of a short conversation. I intentionally refrained from mentioning the terms “questionnaire” or “school project” because I wanted to stick to a casual conversation without referring to a goal I want to reach, to keep the conversation informal.

Trust is crucial

It was very hard to reach a level of trust in the conversation within the short timeframe I set myself, for my counterpart to talk openly and comfortably about the subject matter of energy. In retrospect, I assume that most people are not very used to being asked those kinds of questions.

Different levels of conversation

I realized that it was hard to bridge the conversation from a casual “how do you like living in Emmen” to “What do you know about your personal Energy consumption or how do you think Emmen could improve in the Energy field”. I realized that if one is not from the industry, talking about Energy is not considered small talk but more of an individual, personal issue. Unless, one has embedded the topic in a very casual context, which would have required thorough preparation.

Lastly, several questions arose in my mind: Since energy concerns us all on a daily basis, shouldn’t we have more conversations about such an important topic? And what can we do to change how we relate to the topic?

Source image: https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/zentralschweiz/luzern/online-umfrage-soll-klaeren-wie-emmer-sich-das-emmen-der-zukunft-vorstellen-ld.1087245

Author: Deborah Habermacher

Author: Tatjana Todorovic

All I see are gray industrial buildings and clouds. I am used to this look when I commute to Emmenbrücke. This was the standard I was used to but exploring the municipality exceeded my expectations.

Exploring the nature of Emmen
Emmen offers the option to grab a bicycle and explore the surrounding nature. On the Planetenweg you can see several wooden sculptures and learn more about how far away the moon is. The elderly people we talked to on our way gave us ideas of how much Emmen has changed. The industry took over a large area, but there are still places with nice scenery.

Emmen characteristics
Emmen has its own character and so do its public members. The graffiti demonstrate how people express themselves. Besides these kinds of expressions, we also saw Eastern decorations on quite a few houses, which indicates the effort for decorations. Architecturally, however, there is a wide range, from apartment buildings to new houses with photovoltaic to very old buildings. This showed me that the districts differ in quality. As we were touring, my classmate told me that people complain a lot about the isolation of homes in the area.

My main impression was that the municipality tries to meet the needs of its residents. You will find inexpensive lunch restaurants, a playground for children in the Emmen center, and countless shops. Despite the gray clouds and industrial area, I discovered a place with different cultures, natural beauty, and a municipality committed to its residents.

Emmen has been an important industrial center for the 20th century. Which attracted and required the first emigration of the rural population and later emigrants. Which had a huge impact on the development of Emmen as well as on my family. 1974 my father’s family relocated to Emmen because my grandfather started his new position as a mechanist at Viscosuisse. Exactly, where we study now.

Stroll through memory lane
So, I took the chance to take a walk through Emmen to visit my grandparent’s grave. They spend the rest of their life in this town, raising their kids and grandchildren.  I walked along a street with many different and colorful stores. Which represents the diversity of this town and the impact the industry has. It’s still a town with a lot of industry and for me, that’s something you can feel. On my way, I encountered many childhood memories and they showed me how this town is changing.

Taking advantages
The reputation of Emmen has not been very good the past few years. It’s been called “Emmenbronx”, an association to the Bronx in New York. However, it feels like that Emmen realized the value of its vibrant mix between industry, multiculturalism, and Swissness and they want to turn this place into a creative, open, and diverse suburban area. And the fact, that I study at an Art & Design School where my grandfather used to repair, is evidence enough that this change is happening.

Good old days
On the graveyard, I talked to two elder women about Emmen and its change. I asked something about the Energy strategy of Emmen but they didn’t seem interested. In general, they didn’t seem very happy about all the change that was going on. They miss the big allotment garden in the Sprengi and “everything was better in the past”. I heard my grandfather agreeing with them loud and clear in his grave. So, it became clear to me, that the municipality is not planning an energy strategy for its current inhabitants but its future residents.

Julienne Lehn

Part of my project is to explore the municipality of Emmen in the energy sector from the community perspective and their patterns of everyday activities across social contexts. Based on observations, our group found that the population of Emmen is a mix of foreigners and locals with average income. There is a language barrier and a different cultural background to understand the system and participate in decision making. And because of the multicultural background, I was curious to know about the mobility of people in the town. My personal experience has been to avoid the bus as a means of transportation in Emmen because the roads are often crowded and you arrive late. This may be because most people use their private transportation rather than public transportation. In contrast, Emmen offers trains and buses as public transportation that powered by electricity, however it could be expensive for some citizens. I remember one day looking for a bikesharing service, but unfortunately the nearest station was 20 minutes away from the school.

During my daily commute to Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Emmenbrücke. I have noticed that there are many smaller and bigger industrial companies around the town and also many construction sites are going on. In Emmen, there is an area called the golden triangle, due to the existence of the three main industries Schmolz + Bickenbach (Steel production), Emmi AG (Milk production) and Ruag (Arms Manufacture). It consumes a significant energy, but the positive side is that Raug and Emmi are partly powered by solar panels. The residential buildings in Emmen are a mixture of old and modern houses. This could be a reason for energy waste due to the poor isolation of the old houses.

Finally, the municipality of Emmen shows some sides of its contribution to protect the environment and reduce the energy consumption in the mobility and building sector through efficient, low emission and enhancing the use of renewable energy. However, there is a great responsibility based on the behavior of the community to positively participate in reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment.

Author: Yehia Abouzaid

For me, Emmen has always been a barren empty place. Every time I walk through the Viscosistadt and look up at the tall grey buildings, I wonder where all the people are. That’s why I made my way to the center of Emmen. I wanted to feel the energy of life, but even in the center, I didn’t notice much of it. While walking through the center of Emmen I started to get an odd feeling. The center structure feels constructed and not naturally emerged. Most stores are in big buildings just like the Emmen Center. I am used to seeing people walking, talking, and chilling in the center of a municipality. However, in Emmen, it seemed empty. Emmen center reminds me heavily of the center of Spreitenbach, a municipality that is known for its shopping center Tivoli. Just like in Emmen when you walk through the streets of Spreitenbach it feels empty, but when you go into the shopping center Tivoli you understand where all the people went. So I went into those big buildings to hopefully find the energy of life which I was searching for but to my surprise, I was greeted with half-empty stores and just a few dozen people walking around.
I hope that I just had bad luck and that these big shopping centers in Emmen are usually used by more people because otherwise, this is a huge waste of resources and energy.

Author: Hanieh Aslani

Emmen has been my home for more than a year now and although it is very close to Luzern, it is still very different. This city has its own distinctive vibe with its old and modern buildings, as well as many cultures and languages. Everywhere there are new buildings being constructed with a lot of factories around, the city is full of construction sites. It is not unusual for me to see some factories and companies having their lights on during the night, even though those companies could be ordered to reduce their consumption.

In our conversation about energy, some of my neighbours mentioned that their old houses are not isolated enough, allowing the heat to escape easily and heating causes a lot of energy. Better isolated and modern houses would reduce energy use greatly. Taking a walk in the city, I began to realise how the Art and Design school has impacted the city. It has become normal to see students working on an installation on the street or to see new businesses starting up around the school, such as cafes and restaurants. As I was checking out the school, I was amazed to find out that it uses partly solar energy, something that can have a big influence and can be an example for the city and the municipality. In general, it seems as though Emmen has little to offer at first glance, but I find it very authentic, it is not trying to be perfect, it is simply itself.