Alpine Landscapes of Defence: On Modern-Vernacular Avalanche Protection Systems in the Swiss Alps

This paper conceptualises modern, locally developed avalanche protection systems in the Swiss Alps as ``alpine landscapes of defence,'' which marked the decisive turning point when the alpine nations of Europe switched from early-modern reactive to modern Alpine proactive/preventive risk management against natural hazards. Using the sophisticated system of dry rubble wall constructions above the small mountain village of Goppenstein along the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway line (built in the mid-1930s as a reaction to a deadly powder snow avalanche in 1908), this paper discusses, first, the hybrid technological history of these avalanche protection systems, which combined the tacit knowledge of local mountain-dwellers, the know-how of railway engineers, and the developing scientific research on Alpine natural hazards; second, aspects of a cultural sociology of risk are pondered by acknowledging avalanche protection areas as useful entities for the analysis of the high-modern cultural history of Switzerland in particular, and of the modern narrative of a gradual cultivation of nature from tentative appropriation to final human mastery in general. Lastly, the unique cultural and historical value of local avalanche protection systems in dry rubble wall construction is discussed, considering the aspects of climate change, biodiversity, and the preservation of historic cultural landscapes.     «

This paper conceptualises modern, locally developed avalanche protection systems in the Swiss Alps as ``alpine landscapes of defence,'' which marked the decisive turning point when the alpine nations of Europe switched from early-modern reactive to modern Alpine proactive/preventive risk management against natural hazards. Using the sophisticated system of dry rubble wall constructions above the small mountain village of Goppenstein along the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon railway line (built in the mi...     »