Mountain fallow lands: a little-studied topic

Context Having an issue of the RGA focused on “mountain fallow lands” is a continuation of the concerns raised in the issue regarding the effects of climate change in the Alps in particular – change that appears to doom skiing and snow sports in mid-mountain resorts, on which the press has reported. A fallow land, a wasteland or a brownfield is generally left derelict, not maintained and does not have a specific function. However, from an epistemological point of view, the expression “mountain fallow land” has not been properly defined. Not only is there no real reference literature, but there is no agreement on what “fallow land” even means. About 12 years ago, a group of architects from Basel’s ETHZ (Studio Basel) produced “an urban portrait” of Switzerland in which they used the expression “Alpine fallow lands” (Alpine Brachen in German, or friches alpines in French) to refer to zones “of decline and gradual recession. Their common feature is steady emigration. Alpine fallow lands...

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