More than 90% of Switzerland’s wetland ecosystems have been lost in the past 150 years due to the damming and canalization of glacier-fed rivers between the 1850s-1900s to mitigate flood risks for farms. However, recently there has been a significant political push to expedite the rewetting of peatlands and wetlands to reverse the damages caused by the river blockages, including the 2022 COP15 convention setting a goal of rewetting peatlands by 2030, and the EU proposing its first continent-wide Nature Restoration Law to restore wetlands and river connectivity.

This design project looks to explore the resulting ecosystems and atmospheric conditions of Switzerland's Aargau canton in the four major river networks: the Aare, Limmat, Rhine and Ruess. In restoring these rivers to a free-flowering state, this project visualises a new cross-canton hiking network through the regenerated wetland ecosystems. As part of this project, hiking in delicate ecosystems is reimagined by no longer establishing a straight line as a path, instead exploring how a field condition that naturally floods biannually allows users to aimlessly explore these environments in a non-obstructive way.