Thematically, the concept builds on the titles or tension arcs of the various Arteplages Biel-Bienne, Murten-Morat, Neuchâtel, Yverdon-les-Bains and Jura initiated by the original working groups. Since the world is not only binary or merely dialectical, the Direction Artistique has developed a series of code words as well as an association grid to work with and derived the association case per Arteplage from this.

According to this scheme, the arteplages differ substantially from one another in form, content, character, mood and colour. Likewise, the sound spaces change from one forum to the next. Each Arteplage is a world of its own. The associative grid is not a ready-made instruction manual to be taken literally, but a tool for the imagination. The grid is a sketch that keeps changing and developing and must be read in the context of the process of creation. The architectures and moods of the forums and the exhibition projects are developed on the basis of this diverse image and conceptual grid. Together with the list of themes, the grid guides the design process of the exhibition projects. Ideally, the architectural shells enter into a symbiosis with the exhibition projects.

_{From the publication Der Masterplan vom Herbst 1998}