Context

How best to take advantage of the lovely park that the municipality has just developed below the historical centre of Nyon? How to create a space for all, when it is also the playground for the 97 children at the UAPE (Unité d'Accueil Pour Ecoliers), a historic building located in the middle of the park? These questions stirred the imagination of the sponsors—educators from the UAPE, parents of children, and neighbours. The stakes are high, given that the only public spaces in the vicinity are children’s playgrounds and parking lots. During their conversations with the mediator, the obvious question arose: why not envision an outdoor social space that would be open to all generations? Something “out of the ordinary”, which would not consist of the same standard amenities found everywhere else in the town.

The commission

Resembling a labyrinth of thick oak-wood posts that take over the landscape, the monumental sculpture by the Chapuisat brothers offers itself to a variety of uses: people can sit on it, meet with friends, eat a meal, or play hide-and-seek. The patrons were won over, and the municipality too. For the project to be an exemplary one, everyone agreed that the wood had to come from sustainably managed local forests. Faced with the significant additional cost that this entailed, and in order to finalize the funding, the sponsors launched a crowdfunding campaign which received considerable media attention and allowed them to realise their vision. The commission of Parc du Buis was awarded the PRIX VISARTE 2022 for outstanding projects in the public area in Switzerland.