Riponne: an EPFL project revised downwards disappointing students

The municipality of Lausanne presented temporary developments on the Riponne this Thursday, whose underground car park is currently under construction. By 2028, the place will be refurbished. This year, “green islets” and frescoes will be installed there. And these next few days, a wooden structure will be made where the square fountain was, missing recently. This is a construction carried out in collaboration with 200 EPFL architecture students.

The Alice de l’EPFL laboratory allows students to design an architectural work from public space from public space. “The structure offers stands as well as seats. With its circular scene visible from several points on the site, it will allow the punctual reception of cultural interventions, “describes this Thursday the city of Lausanne.

Only, this wooden installation should have been more ambitious, reported “20 minutes” students involved in the Alice project under the cover of anonymity. The city revised the plans at the last moment and removed part of the pavilion 12 meters high. The witnesses we met said they were “disappointed” and “released” following this decision because they spent hundreds of hours planning the construction. In addition, public money has been spent and equipment that is no longer suitable had already been ordered, they regret.

They consider that the explanations given by the city are not clear and suspect a political maneuver, “for the sake of image”, one year from the municipal elections. Contacted, the trustee Grégoire Junod, in charge of the file, confirms that the project had to be modified, but ensures that there was no “disagreement on the substance”. The problem was linked to the current site. The wooden structure had, according to the elected official, to be modified for reasons of space and weight.

“We got all green lights”