Jul 16 2015
In need of creative inspiration? Be sure to visit the architecture Master’s projects exhibition in the ground floor of the SG building. The exhibition is open until July 24 and admission is free.
© 2015 EPFL – Jamani Caillet
Take off on a journey through the creative production of EPFL’s latest generation of young architects – from infinite cities to nomad homes, from floating hotels to urban farms. For two weeks, the SG building will host an exhibition presenting booklets, posters and 3D models of this year’s architecture Master’s projects. Designed for sites close to home and further afield, some feasible and others utopian, the impressive diversity of the students’ work and of the complex questions they seek to address will definitely give you something to ponder.
The projects address some of todays pressing challenges: densifying urban areas, bringing industrial production back into city centers, creating new cultural spaces, and revitalizing disaffected buildings. There are also proposals addressing spiritual needs – an ecumenical place of worship, social needs – a refugee home that fosters close ties to the local population, and wellbeing – rejuvenating our campus by replacing paved surfaces with green ones and creating new, more pleasant pedestrian paths across it.
Some of the proposals are as provocative as they are interesting. In one project, Lausanne’s closed public toilets are transformed into small apartments. In another, prisons are built into greenhouses to integrate farm work into inmates’ daily lives. And yet another puts forward a plan to meet fluctuating demand for hotel beds during major events such as the Montreux Jazz Festival or the Geneva Festival with a floating hotel that can drop anchor anywhere along the shores of Lake Geneva.