Transversal Territory: A Transdisciplinary and Participatory Approach in Urban Research

Workshops held in suburban Switzerland to experiment with the connection between our bodies and the spaces that we inhabit.

Transversal Territory is a laboratory of urban, environmental, and artistic experimentation at the renowned Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland. It undertakes transdisciplinary and participatory research on the relationship between us, our bodies, and our built and natural environments. Its unique approach is to explore experiences of—and reflections on—urban space through performative bodywork and on-site artistic installations. This process aims at transcending the conventional paradigms of perception and the understanding of urban space, and at creating a new imagination of it—an augmented reality.

Transversal Territory’s innovative research is conducted in annual workshops in which students and locals collaborate. Results are subsequently presented to the public. This book features twenty performances and installations realized in 2022 in Mendrisio’s Rime-Brech neighborhood, a typical suburban area with its mix of industrial structures, social housing, shopping malls, fast food outlets, parking lots, wastelands, and highways. It is conceived as a map of Mendrisio that spreads across the pages to recontextualize the genius loci in book format.

Antoine de Perrot (aka Onzgi) is an architect, visual artist, and urban researcher. He is a lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where he directs the Transversal Territory laboratory. 

Mansoureh Aalaii is a Zurich-based ophthalmologist, choreographer, and dancer, and a lecturer in the Transversal Territory laboratory at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland. She also lectures at dance schools such as Tanzhaus Zürich and Micadanse in Paris.