ThemesCircular economy · Made in Europe · Governance
in:Expeditions designs and leads the learning expedition. Accommodation and transport are booked separately, in your name or through a registered travel operator.
This learning expedition is tailor-made for your group: length, encounters and pace.
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In the Swiss Jura, the watch subcontractor Panatere collects metal offcuts from neighbouring workshops and recasts them as raw material. In Zurich, Freitag has cut its bags from used truck tarpaulins since 1993. In Winterthur, an industrial hall gained three storeys built from reused parts. In Milan, La Scala’s workshops make the opera’s sets and costumes themselves. Between Zurich and Milan, the train crosses the Gotthard. Visits are confirmed with each place when the quote is drawn up.
Panatere, a metal recycling company from the Swiss Jura, has been remelting watchmaking steel offcuts in two solar furnaces in La Chaux-de-Fonds since October 2025, for about 50 tonnes a year. In Geneva, HEAD trains designers, artists and filmmakers across seven bachelor’s and eight master’s programmes, partly in the former plant where Elna sewing machines were assembled.
At Nœrd, its Oerlikon headquarters, Freitag washes and cuts the tarpaulins and welcomes groups of 10 to 25 people. On the former Sulzer site in Winterthur, Hall 118 gained three storeys of reused parts in 2021, with about 60% fewer emissions than a new building.
At La Scala’s Ansaldo workshops, in a former Milan steelworks, more than 150 carpenters, blacksmiths, sculptors and seamstresses make sets and costumes across 20,000 m²; groups visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Turin, Stellantis’s Mirafiori plant has been building the hybrid Fiat 500 since November 2025; the petrol 500 had been made in Poland since 2007.
Photo credits : Photothèque in:Expeditions, tous droits réservés ; Sophie Cardinale, Unsplash
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