HOUSE 1: a collaborative installation at EPFL campus
20/07/2016.
[Lausanne] Switzerland
metalocus, ELENA GALLEGO DE VELASCO
metalocus, ELENA GALLEGO DE VELASCO
ALICE's workshop at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) has undertaken an ambitious new project - the house's collaborative construction. The project has two main ideas: the existence of alternatives in housing and re-question the concept of habitat.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1 at EPFL campus in Laussana. Photograph © Dylan Perrenoud. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
Elevations © ALICE. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
Axonometry © ALICE. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
© ALICE. Image courtesy of Mintlist.
HOUSE 1, built during the ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace), is added to the global reflection on the habitat. You have the commitment of more than 200 people and specific to the design and construction of one skills, is a challenge HOUSE 1. The aim of the workshop is to answer questions about installing a habitat in an urban environment and our participation as architects in the construction of our cities and landscapes.
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.
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.
In succession, each team was asked to design and realize a ROOM (a space intended for HABITATION), or a TRANSITIONAL SPACE providing CONNECTIVITY (porch, stairs, doorway).
The boundaries that divide studio projects are blurry zones of negotiation over space, culture, and ideas. Accordingly, each project is strongly influenced by the others as it enters a multilayered discourse with its surroundings. The spatial experience of HOUSE 1 is therefore not that of a homogenous architecture; rather, it is an unfolding evolution of a space that invokes questions, contains possibilities, and is open for interpretation.
Alexa den Hartog, one of the 12 studio directors responsible for making HOUSE 1 a feasible project, characterizes the proto-structure and its process of inhabitation as a “restricted physical and temporal - ever changing - landscape that only slowly solidified”. To quote Dieter Dietz, HOUSE 1 reveals its final form “not as something that is done from the top down but something we share.”
After four months of frenetic work and strong engagement, the project has been recently completed and is now open to visitors on the EPFL campus next to the Rolex Learning Center.
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.
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.
In succession, each team was asked to design and realize a ROOM (a space intended for HABITATION), or a TRANSITIONAL SPACE providing CONNECTIVITY (porch, stairs, doorway).
The boundaries that divide studio projects are blurry zones of negotiation over space, culture, and ideas. Accordingly, each project is strongly influenced by the others as it enters a multilayered discourse with its surroundings. The spatial experience of HOUSE 1 is therefore not that of a homogenous architecture; rather, it is an unfolding evolution of a space that invokes questions, contains possibilities, and is open for interpretation.
Alexa den Hartog, one of the 12 studio directors responsible for making HOUSE 1 a feasible project, characterizes the proto-structure and its process of inhabitation as a “restricted physical and temporal - ever changing - landscape that only slowly solidified”. To quote Dieter Dietz, HOUSE 1 reveals its final form “not as something that is done from the top down but something we share.”
After four months of frenetic work and strong engagement, the project has been recently completed and is now open to visitors on the EPFL campus next to the Rolex Learning Center.
More information
Architect/designer/artist
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
ALICE Studio (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace)
Project team
ALICE Studio - 1st year students (2016), Dieter Dietz, Daniel Zamarbide, Raffael Baur, Edouard Cabay, Laurent Chassot, Nicolas Durr, Margherita Del Grosso, Alexa den Hartog Stéphane Grandgirard, Patricia Guaita, Agathe Mignon, Andrea Pellacani, Laura Perez Lupi, Anne-Chantal Rufer, Wynd van der Woude with Thibaud Smith
Lead engineer timber construction
Rémy Meylan, architect & wood engineer Whood x Mug
Materials
Wood, metal, concrete.
Tools
Screwdriver, japanese saw, drill, rope.
Quantities
Dimensions: 11 x 11 x 11 meters
Weight: 5 tons
Planning: 3 months preparations, 1 month construction
15’000 linear meter of wood
20’000 screws
150 concrete tiles
Location
Campus EPF, Lausanne, Switzerland
Year
2016
