In a text entitled The audience of the architecture Posted in 19701Giancarlo di Carlo postulated that architecture had previously answered the question of comment rather than that of Whyoffering answers to given problems, without necessarily questioning them. Faced with the shortage of housing, climate emergency and growing social and economic inequalities, architects today have a major role to play in questioning the fundamental issues of the discipline, opening the way to other forms of living and building more lasting than those from which we have inherited.
The training within the Master of Architecture (JMA) joint gives an important place to the problems carried out by students and encourage them to assert a critical personal positioning, then to confront these theoretical positions with an architecture project developed within the framework of Master’s work. At the HEIA-FR, the questions raised by the students of the JMA-FR testify to a strong commitment to respond to current social issues and an awareness of their role as a force of proposal, even if it means discussing the situation when of the architect’s profession. Their projects are oriented towards an architecture which must today take care of the comment what quoi and especially Why.
If several master’s degree in the JMA-FR deals with the reuse or the experimentation of new materials2we have observed for several years an increase in projects renouncing to build new, fueling the shortest loop of the 4R (recycling, reusing, reducing, refusing) which consists in working with the existing. In addition to interventions in a heritage or transformation of rural and mountain transformation, other projects bear witness to an increasing interest in the transformation of the building of the second half of the 20e century, generally without recognized heritage value. Among them, we can distinguish two strategies which are not only interested in the transformation of the building, but also that of lifestyles.
Reveal generic architectures and places
The first transformation strategy is aimed at ordinary architectures. These projects attack the recent history inscribed in everyday places such as the periphery or craft and commercial areas. The transformation of the building accompanies a change of function. The uses are reimagined and modified, as well as architecture. On the one hand, the consumption and its monuments that are the shopping centers of the 20e century are questioned and redesigned as mixed places in which the linear economy is replaced by repair, maintenance, reconditioning of materials and re -use. On the other hand, tertiary buildings become opportunities to renew the modes of living.
Big boxes are not always the best gifts: transfer of a commercial place in the Swiss peri -urban context3Seeland (ne). This project addresses the issue of transformation of periphery commercial environments in decline. It proposes to transform commercial halls “without great intrinsic value, apart from that of being already present, which represents a latent urban resource”. The project reveals the potential for transforming a generic architecture, both at the programmatic level (craft or tertiary activities, housing and shops), and architectural expression. It thus proposes “a new relationship to consumption and production” and “reappears the architectural language of the craft and commercial zone to new functions”.
The signAL: A place of consumption reappropriate in a circular and collaborative platform4Bussigny (VD). This project deals with the evolution of contemporary production methods by the “reappropriation” of a shopping center in the place of circular economy. It operates by subtraction to restore architectural quality instead, characterized by “a prefabricated concrete structure from the 1960s hidden by successive transformations”, based on the underestimated qualities of the building revealed thanks to a precise diagnosis. These assets make it possible to integrate a new program and to offer “a circular consumption model adapted to contemporary challenges by valuing local resources, by reinterpreting uses and respecting existing architecture”.
And phaRe: Reception, meeting, sharing and refuge center5PAV (Praille-Acacias-Vernets), Geneva. This project aims to transform a tertiary building dedicated to demolition in order to make a reception center cohabit for asylum applicants, collective housing, workspaces and rooms for the neighborhood. The project evolves in parallel with the transformation of the PAV. The materials from demolished buildings are reused in the project, promoting the emergence of a sector and training dedicated to re -use as vectors of integration of inhabitants. The characteristics of the tertiary building make it possible to imagine typologies of non -standardized housing with many shared and shared spaces.
Habitus: a Haussmanni garage as liquid medium6Paris. This project explores the architectural transformation beyond the building, integrating the evolution of “domestic habits”: beyond the purely material aspect, it seizes the fields of anthropology, sociology or even psychology. The project uses the architecture of a set of Haussmannian buildings and a garage of the 1960s as a means to imagine new forms of living, less standardized and more inclusive, “imagining the house as a (mi) temporary residence rather than sedentarization”. Different modular spaces respond to various occupation temporalities. “Housing is revisited as a collective and scalable space generating unexpected situations and innovative devices”.
Revaluate collective and social housing
The second strategy addresses the question of the necessary transformation of social housing built within the framework of post-war housing policies. Sometimes confronted with a lack of maintenance, with renovations not taking into account their original qualities, or even in certain cases to demolition, these projects propose to highlight these still poorly recognized heritage. By offering transformation approaches that go beyond energy sanitation, they prioritize social issues and the requalification of housing by exploring the potential of these architectures to be reinterpreted and incorporate new ways of living.
Social housing lines: enhance a neighborhood by transformation of social housing7Bellevaux district, Lausanne (VD). This project addresses the question of revaluation and repositioning of social housing, housing laboratory of 20e century, at the heart of architectural discipline. It questions the transformation processes centered exclusively on technical aspects, by prioritizing social issues and the requalification of housing to improve the quality of the common spaces of the district and housing. By a “specific language for transformation”, the project redefines the character of the district by dialoguing with the original architecture, which is not erased but reinterpreted.
Rooted: Between seniors and heritage8all the cliffs of Gratta-Paille, Lausanne (VD). This project deals with the question of inclusive housing and the integration of the elderly in the city. The transformation is approached on the scale of the district and housing, from the angle of pedestrian mobility, the programming of public spaces and the reinterpretation of housing typologies. The project is based on a fine understanding of the qualities of the ordinary heritage of housing of 20e century, with the aim of defining “intervention principles” applicable to other districts with similar issues.
To the smallest: densification of an urban set of housing9Geneva. This project addresses the question of the environmental impact of the construction sector by finding an economy of means, both with regard to the reduction and pooling of housing areas and the reuse of existing buildings. He calls into question the current densification practices by the demolition of the existing fabric, demonstrating that it is possible “to densify the city for the same number of inhabitants, but alternatively” and “to preserve the memory of the place and the built and landscape heritage”.
Renaissance of a new city: to enhance the heritage and social identity of Toulouse Le Mirail10Toulouse (F). This project addresses the question of the revaluation of the heritage of social housing and offers alternatives in the face of the demolition projects faced by many districts. The project demonstrates the potential of the architecture of Candilis, Josic and Woods to be transformed and rehabilitated instead of being erased. It offers a typological and spatial research developed from a precise diagnosis of the qualities of the original project, demonstrating the capacity of this architecture “to activate new lifestyles and social and intergenerational mix”.
Experiment
These projects bear witness to a growing interest in new generations of architects for the transformation and a diversity of approaches characterized by a holistic look incorporating architectural, environmental and social issues. Faced with the importance of preserving a stillly recognized and sometimes threatened heritage, they demonstrate the potential of three -level transformation: first as a field of exploration of the contemporary architecture project, which is also defined by dialogue with the existing; Then as a source of typological innovation and experimentation with new ways of living, which could in turn influence the contemporary production of housing; Finally, as a tool for revaluing ordinary built heritage, by a change of gaze oriented towards the revaluation of the existing.11
-Dr Séréna Vanbutsele is an architect and urban planner, professor and manager of the Transform Institute in HEIA-FR.
Isabel Concheiro is an architect, professor and head of the Master of Architecture joint at HEIA-FR.
Notes
1. Giancarlo De Carlo, “the public of the architect”, ParameterMay-June 1970
2. Hani Buri, “The material that thinks”, Traced 6/2024
3. JMA-FR, 2022. Author: Raphaël Bitzi. Professor: Götz Menzel. External expert: Dries Rodet. winner Prix Master SIA 2022, Prix Fas 2022 and SIA-FR Prix 2022. Excerpts from the text: Götz Menzel.
4. JMA-FR, 2025. Author: Quentin Donzallaz. Professor: Stephanie Bender. External expert: Yves Dreier. Text extracts: Quentin Donzallaz.
5. JMA-FR, 2025. Author: Julie Caloz. Professor: Séréna Vanbutsele. External expert: Liliana Franco Teixeira. Text extracts: Julie Caloz.
6. JMA-FR, 20144. Authority: Léo Laureure. Professional: Gotzes Mennels. Experts External: Dafni Retzpi. MENTION PRIX MASTER SIA 2024. Extraits you text: Léo Laurence, Genzel Mennel.
7. JMA-FR, 2024. Author: Nathan Demont. Professor: Götz Menzel. External expert: Bernard Zurbuchen. SUNDABILITY expert: Séverine PEDRAZA. HEII-FR 2024 prize winner.
8. JMA-FR, 2024. Author: Maëlle Gatard. Professor: Christian Dupraz. External expert: Jeanne de Bussac. Sustainable expert: Alvaro Varela. Winner PRICE FAS 2024 and HEIA-FR durability prices 2024. Extracts from the text: Maëlle GADARD
9. JMA-FR, 2023. Author: Nicolas Brutanel. Professor: Tanya Zein. External expert: Pierre Bonnet. HEIA-FR 2023 prize winner, selected Master Prix SIA 2023. Extracts from the text: Nicolas Brutanel, Tanya Zein
10. JMA-FR, 2024. Author: Coline Bonnafous. Professor: Isabel Concheiro. External expert: Yves Schihin. SUBLISHING EXPERT: Laurent Guidetti. Winner Prix Architects for the Climate 2024, selected Master Prix SIA 2024. Excerpts from the text: Coline Bonnafous
11. Source: Isabel Concheiro, “Revalurate and experiment: the transformation of offices into housing in Switzerland”, the transformation of offices into housing, notebook, 2024
