Upcycling

As part of the axis « Integrated Design, Architecture and Sustainability (IDEAS) », the UPCYCLING teaching unit focuses on the integration of sustainability issues into architectural design, with special attention to savings in resources. Dedicated to the interdisciplinary design of a temporary pavilion, it gathers about forty EPFL students supervised by lecturers from the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), the Laboratory of Integrated Performance in Design (LIPID) and the Structural Xploration Lab (SXL).

At first sight, notions of temporary architecture and sustainability may seem contradictory. Indeed, the concept of sustainable development is fundamentally based on the idea of long-term action. Therefore, it may seem out of the ordinary to associate it with practices that, by essence, aim at meeting punctual or ephemeral needs.

However, the term “sustainable” (durable in French) should not be understood in terms of an architectural object’s perennity, but rather as the search of a “state of durability” by the pursuit of a proper balance between the needs to be met and the means implemented in order to attain them. Thus, considering sustainability as a constant search for an optimal equilibrium between needs and means, temporary architecture appears as a fertile ground for reflection and experimentation.

The teaching unit will center around this issue of finding balance between meeting needs and saving resources, focusing on the design of a temporary architectural object. More specifically, the students will be asked to design a temporary pavilion dedicated to hosting participatory processes, integrating recycled elements, satisfying users’ comfort requirements and managing the ecological load induced by their projects.

 

ACADEMIC YEAR 2023-2024

Lecturers 

Prof. Marilyne Andersen
Prof. Corentin Fivet
Dr. Loïc Fumeaux
Dr. Luisa Pastore
Oliver Regazzoni
Prof. Emmanuel Rey

External lecturers

To be confirmed.

Students 

Francesco Alberto, Liam Banctel, Carina Castro Sousa, Eissa Cottier, Marcel Da Costa Oliveira Siqueira, Léna Karch, Gabriela Madeira Biscotto, Clara Neff, Aurélien Pachoud, Tina Regelin, Maxime Rivoal, Jean-Baptiste Rolland, Nicolas Stanislas, Mathieu Stutz, Daniel Wandere, Liz Welter.

 

ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023

Lecturers 

Prof. Marilyne Andersen
Prof. Corentin Fivet
Dr. Loïc Fumeaux
Dr. Luisa Pastore
Oliver Regazzoni
Prof. Emmanuel Rey

External lecturers

Jean Camuzet
Patrick Derham
Jean Liermier
Thiébaut Parent

Students 

Juliette Auer, Yago Ayllon I Martinez, Ugo Beaudonnat, Quentin Bruyère, Eva Collier, Zélie Cortès, Dimitri Descloux, Céline Gruffel, Diego Houtart, Zoé Kirschfink, Tom Kobayashi, Tristan Kramer, Gabriel Ogbonna, Miguel Pedrosa Ferreira De Oliveira, Samuel Perreault, Julien Pignat, Andréa Rakotoarinivo, Abigail Riand, Yasmine Sefraoui, Alice Sorg, Franziska Wilk.

 

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-2022

Lecturers 

Prof. Marilyne Andersen
Prof. Corentin Fivet
Dr. Loïc Fumeaux
Dr. Luisa Pastore
Oliver Regazzoni
Prof. Emmanuel Rey

External lecturers

Nicolas Bassand
Thiébaut Parent
Valentin Kunik

Students 

Mélodie Amorim Natario, Pauline Berger, Raoul Cordoba, François Decurtins, Elsa Escobedo, Alicia Fankhauser, Luana Ferrari, Théo Gaspar, Matthias Jammers, Chiara Kempter, Vincent Luetto, Sonya Nanami Fritz, Camille Nicolet, Ghita Ouassini, Sarah Planchamp, Mélodie Rey, Antoine Ricard-Gauthier, Justine Rognon, Johnny Syriani, Sibylle Vuillemin.

 

ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-2021

Lecturers

Prof. Marilyne Andersen
Prof. Corentin Fivet
Dr. Loïc Fumeaux
Dr. Caroline Karmann
Oliver Regazzoni
Prof. Emmanuel Rey

External lecturers

Benjamin Poignon
Thiébaut Parent
Katherine Merz
Nicolas Bassand 

Students 

Giovanni Abdalla, Valentine Aellen, Mélanie Baptista de Sousa, Marie-Aude Bardyn, Lisa Baseggio, Paulo Batista Cordeiro, Billy Audrey, Basir Borhani, Antoine Casile, Marc De La Gandara, Thibault De Oliveira, Léane Fichant, Leonita Gjocaj, Clara Gualtieri, Sarah Hahusseau, Rita Haodiche, Charlotte Jianoux, Jonathan Kiener, Gleb Kolesnikov, Pierrot Lankry, Benjamin Laville, Sébastien Léveillé, Maria Loizou, Océane Martin, Benoît Meylan, Loris Millius, Simone Morelli, Jeremy Morris, Carina Pannatier, David Perret, Lionel Progin, José Reyes Osorio, Abigaël Schaller, Romain Schindelholz, Chloé Schindler, Clara Seffanecene. Morgan Simon, Ahmed Soliman, Romane Terrien, Jennifer Tribolet, Roberto Trivelli, Pauline Viennot-Bourgin, Sarah Voirin.