Events

HOUSE 2 – COUNTER CITY: a 240 square-metre public installation in Zurich

The installation was erected in less than 10 days, involving 200 first-year students who prefabricated all the built elements of the installation in Lausanne and transported them across Switzerland i to Zurich, where they unloaded and re-assembled them as a full-size ephemeral structure.

HOUSE 2 – COUNTERCITY installation © Anna Positano -Opfot.com

HOUSE 2 – COUNTER CITY (www.countercity.ch) is a 240 square metre public architectural installation situated next to the Toni-Areal in Zurich. The project is based on an experimental format for collaborative design and construction conceived by ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace) — a laboratory of EPFL led by Dieter Dietz.

Erected in less than 10 days, the project involved 200 first-year students, who prefabricated all the built elements of the installation in Lausanne and transported them across Switzerland in six shipping containers to Zurich, where they unloaded and re-assembled them as a full-size ephemeral structure. (more…)

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“Under One Roof” Kengo Kuma’s new building for the EPFL Campus

Kuma’s signature-style roof joins together the different programs hosted by the building, which was built by the Japanese architect in collaboration with Swiss office Holzer Kobler Architekturen.

Kengo Kuma and Associates “Under One Roof” EPFSL Campus building © Photo: Michel Denancé

Back in 2012, Kengo Kuma and Associates, together with Holzer Kobler Architekturen, won the architectural design competition to develop Cosandey Square at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The project was named “Under One Roof“, in reference to a Japanese saying that regards many different peoples collaborating.

The building has been recently opened to the public after four year’s work. The Arts & Sciences space designed by KKAA is joined to a exhibition pavilion via a single, long roof that connects all the programs together. (more…)

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“The Difficult Whole” A Reference Book on Robert Venturi, John Rauch and Denise Scott Brown

This edition, published by Park Books, features analysis of twenty-eight projects by Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, re-evaluating Venturi’s idea of the “difficult whole” in the context of his work: a significant contribution to a contemporary architectural discourse.

“The Difficult Whole” © Park Books

In 1966, architect Robert Venturi published Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, a manifesto that became one of the twentieth century’s most important statements about architecture. Drawing on both vernacular and high-style sources, Venturi introduced new lessons from the buildings of architects who were well known, like Michelangelo and Alvar Aalto, and those whose work had then been forgotten, like Frank Furness and Edwin Lutyens. Arguing against the diagrammatic forms that dominated the field at that time, Venturi made a case instead for “the difficult whole.” (more…)

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The CO-OP principle: Hannes Meyer and the Concept of Collective Design

Located simultaneously on two sites -Archizoom and Forum d’architectures, both in Lausanne- the exhibition draws from the EPFL archives to show Hannes Meyer’s time as director of Bauhaus Dessau and how it affected his political and critical approach to architecture and design.

Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer with the assistance of the Bauhaus Dessau,school of the ADGB (Federation of German Trade Unions) in Bernau by Berlin, 1928 – 1930 View from the library to the halls of residence, 1930, photo: Walter Peterhans Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

School of the ADGB (Federation of German Trade Unions) in Bernau by Berlin, 1928 – 1930. View from the library to the halls of residence, 1930. Photo: Walter Peterhans. Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

The Fondation Culture du Bâti and the Foundation Bauhaus Dessau are presenting an exhibition on Hannes Meyer, second director of the Bauhaus school of design. The exhibition, named “The co-op principle: Hannes Meyer and the Concept of Collective Design” focuses on the archietct’s personal and professional evolution during the Bauhaus years.

(more…)

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HOUSE 1: a collaborative installation at EPFL campus in Lausanne

HOUSE 1 is an architectural installation based on an experimental format for collaborative design and construction by ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace) – an international group of young architects and researchers, scientists, and doctoral candidates from the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), led by the Director Dieter Dietz.

Realization © Dylan Perrenoud ALICE EPFL

Built initially as proto-structure (primary construction) during a 5-day workshop in April, HOUSE 1 is a 11m x 11m x 11m balloon-frame timber construct holding the ‘genetic code’ for future developments. The project involved over 200 students, who worked in groups under the close guidance of 12 studio directors and the wood engineer Rémy Meylan. (more…)

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“Live Matter” at Archizoom-EPFL Lausanne

Live Matter concerns itself with the ongoing measure of the natural world—how plant life has been described, muted, and labeled throughout botanical history—to reveal a new discourse that delights in an attitude of discovery, one that acknowledges the aliveness of plants.

"Live Matter" exhibition © Archizoom EPFL

The research calls out plants as a design medium, a proposition that acknowledges that we remain in a period of discovery when it comes to transformations of the plant itself. The subject of live matter is, in a sense, about how we participate in the universal act of planting. Therefore, the term is suggested to invoke the animated but rarely fully appreciated existence of plant life. Plants displace, conjoin, sequence; they are irritable, sensitive, or combative and display a range of postures including anticipation and mobility. (more…)

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“Aldo Rossi: La Finistra del Poeta” at EPFL Lausanne

The exhibition explores architectural thinking and introduces the visitors to critical ways of looking at Rossi’s prints. The content includes his collection of prints and a selection of plates magnified by drawings, photographs and sketches that are significant for understanding Rossi’s flow of creativity.

Aldo Rossi, Dieses ist langer - Ora questo è perduto, 1975, etching, collection Bonnefantenmuseum © Eredi Aldo Rossi

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Aldo Rossi’s museum in Maastricht, the Bonnefantenmuseum produced an exhibition on the fascinating Opera Grafica of this versatile architect and artist. Along with the exhibition, titled “La finestra del poeta” after a favourite subject of Rossi’s, Silvana Editoriale has published the book Aldo Rossi: Opera Grafica, a work conducted in close cooperation with the museum and the Fondazione Aldo Rossi in Milan, and ARCHIZOOM is publishing a map and an application on the Città analoga. (more…)

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“Horizontal Metropolis” at Archizoom-EPFL Lausanne

Produced in collaboration with Lab-U, the exhibition uses Broadacre City by Frank Lloyd Wright as a starting point to study contemporary case studies of horizontal metropolis. It features models and a series of original interviews, lectures and texts.

The exhibition features five large models representing an area of 3,2km x 3,2km at 1:880 scale – the same as the original Broadacre City model, in order to showcase some recent case studies: Switzerland, both the plateau in Lausanne and the alpine territory of Valais (la ville territoire), Veneto region (Città diffusa), Boston metropolitan area (megalopolis), and the Chinese example of Tangqi (Desakota). (more…)