COMPOSE-RE-COMPOSE

Fall 2024 Design Studio

Office Hours as requested

The official language will be French but students who prefer to communicate in English, Spanish and German are also welcome

Brief : Demolition as Resource in the Geneva region

As the urban population and the urgency of the environmental crises (climate, biodiversity, water) and social issues (aging, inequalities, individualization) continue to grow exponentially, the need for inner urban development increases. This development asks for careful attention to the existing: buildings, infrastructures, and urban neglected areas (tabula scripta). This new context imposes a transscalar approach and a global understanding of the resources. It also adds new complexities to the question of composition. It imposes, more than ever, precise and sensitive architectural responses. This situation presses us to seek appropriate models for an approach to the territory, the architecture, the materials, and the questions of use and aesthetics.

As we live through this time of transition, the role of the architect needs to be radically transformed to master concepts of regeneration, reuse, and reprogramming, at all four scales: material, architectural, urban, and regional. In these circumstances, the architect's role goes far beyond the "architectural production" and thinking in terms of the object, frozen within its parcel boundaries. Architects must open up to a holistic way of thinking, curating potential in the existing city. They must understand the urban environment as a source of materials, buildings, spaces, and uses. This requires an ability to handle concepts such as carbon literacy, resource management, the energetic impact of their projects, and effective communication strategies to facilitate collective decision-making. In this context, the architectural decision gains importance compared to the usual urban planning processes. It claims to transform what already exists and adapt the scales to it.

This process cannot only be considered as a response to the need for densification but also as an opportunity for the shaping of the city to continue. Additionally, the process of urban transformation must offer solutions to social, cultural, environmental and economic requirements. Repairing and regenerative processes must integrate sensitive attention towards the past. It is time to learn from the vernacular and its global approach. How can we build our future cities based on a circular non-extractive approach to resources?

Densification, Adaptive ReUse, Programming, Resources, Demolitions, Regeneration, Carbon Literacy, Composition

• Understand the built environment as a whole and at various scales in order to identify appropriate intervention levels and design processes.
• Prioritize project strategies according to a hierarchy that maximizes impact with minimal effort supporting a sustainable urban development.
• View projects as dynamic processes involving multiple stakeholders.
• Use projects as tools for research, analysis, and design.

Teaching methodology: Project based, transcalar and cross disciplinary

Ariane Widmer and Blanca Gardelegui will co-teach "compose-re-compose," combining their expertise in urban planning, architecture, and materiality. They will explore urban densification from an architect's perspective, focusing on the potential of existing neighborhoods, spaces, buildings, and resources. Their approach emphasizes reusing resources and promoting adaptive reuse, densification, and programmatic flexibility.

The aim is to reimagine urban densification and planning to integrate circularity, fostering a sustainable and adaptable urban environment. This issue requires a multi-faceted approach in schools: project based, transcalar and cross disciplinary. The acquired experience must be questioned, adapted, and passed on, addressing environmental and social emergencies.The work of the students will be individual and constantly retrofitted by the collective input.

Workflow: Design strategies to uncover potential in the existing

Based on a cartographic analysis of the demolition of buildings in the Geneva region, the students will undertake research into the reasons for demolition on a regional scale. On this basis and focusing on smaller selected sectors of the city, they will then assess the potential for densification, extension, adaptation, and reprogramming, and propose design strategies on an architectural scale, both for the building (structure, energy, reuse, and local materials) and on an urban scale, for the neighborhood (mix, diversity, services) based on the principle of the city of short distances.

Students will work at four scales: Material (20%), Architectural (30%), Urban(30%), and Regional (20%), with a corresponding scale weighted for the semester's evaluation.

Bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the semester.

• Genève en plans: De Maurice Braillard à André Marais / Gfellerhttp://library.epfl.ch/beast?isbn=9782829006494
• How buildings learn: What happens after they're built / Brandhttp://library.epfl.ch/beast?isbn=0670835153

• https://go.epfl.ch/AR-401_athttps://go.epfl.ch/AR-401_at

Summer reading

Gfeller, P. (Ed.). (n.d.). Genève en plans: De Maurice Braillard à André Marais. Éditions d'en bas.

Brand, S. (1994). How buildings learn: What happens after they're built. Penguin Books.