Contents

1 - Audemars Piguet: expansion and improvements in Le Brassus
2 - Designing the first Minergie-ECO® production unit
3 - Minergie-ECO®: the requirements of the new label
4 - A wood-fired heating system
5 - Telecommunications: playing it safe
6 - Revitalisation and reforestation of the Brassus stream area
7 - A welcoming entrance to the village
8 - High and medium voltage: the end of overhead electrical lines

Revitalising the Brassus stream bed

To build the Manufacture des Forges, a portion of the Brassus stream, channelled through the construction site for the past 161 years, needed to be returned to its original course. Audemars Piguet decided to finance an exemplary re-landscaping project, both in terms of scenery and ecological concerns.

Le Brassus’ industrial history began in 1555, thanks to the small stream running through the village for just barely one kilometre between its source and its junction with the Orbe river. The stream provided the impetus for the rapid development of the metallurgical industry. Although small, there were plenty of iron mines in the valley and neighbouring France, and the Risoud forest offered excellent quality wood for charcoal. Windmills, sawmills and ironworks chime out their paddle wheels all along the stream, quickly hemmed in by the buildings along its banks.

Revitalisation
In lieu of the old canal, Le Brassus residents will enjoy a new natural area on the edge of the vast protected zone alongside the windings of the Orbe river. All along the new building, the stream will flow from one small naturally formed pool to the next in charming cascades, before landing in the natural “delta” where it runs into the Orbe. A wooden bridge will provide safe passage over the stream, and the trees will shed a welcome bit of shade for the trout to flourish.
Hydrologic demands
The stream is characterised by the significant variations in its flow rate. The new bed has three levels. During low water periods, the main bed comprises natural basins that are always full, guaranteeing survival of the fish population and providing ideal breeding grounds. When the flow increases, the water spreads out to use the entire middle bed, where the shores are stabilised with appropriate vegetation. When the water level is high, the flow floods the upper bed, delineated by protective dykes.

Ecological demands
The diversity of profiles between the minor and major bed, the succession of flat, wetland and shallow areas generates a new dynamic for the stream which encourages biodiversity. There, where the former channel only provided a hydraulic interest, an interactive relationship is developing between the land and the water. The diversity of these new environments is proving favourable for diverse new life to take root and thrive: aquatic plants (algae, moss, etc.), riparian (helophyte, meadowsweet, valerian, etc.) and soft-wood trees and shrubs (willows, alders, viburnum, etc.).

Ecology and biodiversity
The plant life offers indigenous herbaceous and woody vegetation that is well adapted to the location and to the changing nature of the Brassus water levels. In proportion to the new buildings, the pussy willows (Salix caprea), the rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) and the adlers (Alnus glutinosa) form a buffer zone and a botanical filter between the new building and the village. These trees, planted all around the site, will soon be part of Audemars Piguet’s natural, ecological park’s identity. Given their flexibility, their adaptability to the environment and their ability to resist the periodic high water levels, the small rosemary leaf willows (Salix rosmarinifolia) settle in and reinforce the stream’s shoreline. The strength of the above-water portion of these robust bushes slows the rushing current and reduces the erosion along the Brassus. A few pockets of blue willowleaf gentians (Gentiana asclepiadea), noticeable to those who visit and stroll nearby, slip in between the cracks in the shrubby areas and add to the poetic dimension of the new landscape. At the mouth of the Orbe, the riparian grasses find their place. A few flooded pockets encourage the development of batrachians. A herbaceous vegetation, bountiful in terms of flowers, colonises the shores all along the plain. Only a few soft wood trees and bushes punctuate this space and reinforce the quality of this area, so rich in both entomofauna and avifauna.

Riparian: which lives along the water’s edge
Helophyte: marsh-water plant that takes root and flourishes in the muck at the bottom of the water but during summer develops above the water’s surface
Entomofauna: the insects of an area or region
Avifauna: the birds living in a particular area