THE REAL BOOK

ALICE

The Real Book consists of 828 pages en­tirely conceived and crafted by 160 first year architecture students at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, guided by a team of architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, graphic design­ers, artists, and professors of the laboratory of ALICE — Atelier de la conception de l’espace. It was crafted during the period of confinement due to the COVID­19 pandemic from March to May, 2020. The title is directly borrowed from another book of the same name, a compilation of lead sheets for jazz standards formulated in the 1970s that set a conditioning structure of essential elements for musical dialogue and collective improvisation in any configuration — a ’pro­to­language’ that serves to create a new idiom. Like the original, this version of The Real Book elaborates on the essential elements of the ALICE first year programme, yet expands beyond the notion of a repertoire.

The period of confinement began just two days before entering the final phase of the year — Houses/Gardens — the outcome of which would have been a full scale, collective construction on the banks of the Arve and Rhône rivers in Geneva. Having spent many of the previous weeks exploring aspects of the spectacular landscape that were to be our companions for what we called a Cabo­tage from La Jonction to Onex, we found ourselves in March forced to abruptly abandon the ateliers — the nexus to all production — together with all the work ­in­ progress that it contained. We reconstructed, with a different palette of tools, through our memories and imagination, what we thought we had learned: The place that should have hosted our projects would now only be an imagined reality.

This moment may have, for an instant, paused the intensity and strong impulses that had been building up a beautiful energy and momentum, but it was a mere caesura. What followed was forward ­look­ing and generated new ways of being creative collectively. Solidarity, a will to progress together, elasticity and adaptation, kindness and understanding became even more apparent than before. (...)

The continuous movement and exchange between the physical and digital that has been a preoccupation of ALICE – going from pencil and paper to digitally processed material, crafted details, hands on experimentation and making — became even more pressing to address, being constantly confronted and tested by a community of people inside and outside the campus. What matters is not how we relate to technology, or new technologies (let’s not forget that any tool has been, at some point in history ’technological’, the pencil included) but how they are utilised collectively and for what purpose. Despite Victor Hugo’s famous saying in his novel, Notre-Dame de Paris: ’ceci tuera cela’ time has come to eradicate this dichotomous thinking. Nothing will kill anything. We simply must learn better how to cohabit. Exchanges, additions, super­ and /or juxtapositions, agencies of both things and living beings of all kinds are to be purposefully explored, adapted, and integrated. (...)

As for the book itself, The Real Book became the construction of an architecture of its own — the translation of an imagined series of projects and sites into a physicality. Perhaps we have not yet the courage or nerve to step away from the construct of a book —even the screen version is presented as a sequence of pages — but we are nonetheless glad to feel the weight of it in our hands. It is, however, only another step towards an ever becoming reality. This physicality is composed of a generous number of layers, of which the book presents but one moment. This tendency towards other layers wanted to take the book further into architectural construction, preparing the terrain with all necessary documentation to build other Houses, other Gardens. Would acquiring a built existence confer to the project a new status of even more real, validated by the world through its materiality? We do not think so. We strongly believe that the journey from the one side of the Looking Glass to the other — a physically present, pivotal surface between existing and imaginary worlds — is the place of learning, and the place of architecture as well. Architecture does not reside uniquely in its status as a material object, but dwells in a milieu that neither solidifies nor freezes its’ belonging to one single perception or representation. (...)

(PREFACE: HABITANT BY TERESA CHEUNG &  DANIEL ZAMARBIDE)

THE REAL BOOK - 
A YEARBOOK OF THE ALICE (ATELIER DE LA CONCEPTION DE L’ESPACE) FIRST YEAR ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS OF THE ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL), SWITZERLAND, DOCUMENTING THE WORK PRODUCED DURING THE PERIOD OF CONFINEMENT FROM MARCH TO MAY 2020.
1ST EDITION, 2020

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY:
ALICE Y1 STUDENTS, LISTED BELOW, AND STUDENTS FROM THE FORMATION SUPÉRIEURE EN PHOTOGRAPHIE AT THE CENTRE D’ENSEIGNEMENT PROFESSIONNEL DE VEVEY (CEPV): JULIANE BADOUX, VICTOR BÜHLMANN, RICARDO CALDAS,
KEVIN CHRISTINAT, SAMI ALEXANDRE FARRA, AURÉLIE GIOVANNONI, ESTELLE MARTIN, ORIANA PRATI, TIM ROD
WITH THE PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT OF MATHIEU BERNARD-REYMOND.

GRAPHIC DESIGN:
ROMAN KARRER

PRINT AND BINDING:
EBERL & KOESEL

PAPER:
BAVARIA GLOSS, HOLMEN TRND

TYPEFACES:
CMU TYPEWRITER TEXT, PROTOTYPE (BETA)

TERESA CHEUNG, DIETER DIETZ, SÉBASTIEN GROSSET AND DANIEL ZAMARBIDE OF THE ALICE Y1 TEAM WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING: ROMAN KARRER, CLARISSE LABRO AND RÉMY MEYLAN, WHOSE ELAN AND MOTIVATION REALLY ALLOWED THIS PROJECT TO TAKE FLIGHT. MATHIEU BERNARD-REYMOND AND THE STUDENTS OF THE CEPV, LISTED ABOVE, WHOSE COLLABORATION BROUGHT ANOTHER LENS THROUGH WHICH TO SEE. STEFAN KAEGI AND RIMINI PROTOKOLL, AND VALENTIN AUGSBERGER AND THE THÉÂTRE VIDY FOR THE GENEROUS INVITATION TO DRESS REHEARSAL OF SOCIÉTÉ EN CHANTIER.

OUR GUESTS, WHO HAVE BEEN MAGNANIMOUS WITH THEIR TIME IN GIVING TALKS, PERFORMING LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS, PARTICIPATING IN REVIEWS AND LEADING WORKSHOPS, ALWAYS DELIVERING AN UNWAVERING, EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE WORK THAT WE DO: EMMANUELLE AGUSTONI, OSKAR ARNOSSON, EDOUARD CABAY, LAURENT CHASSOT, GASPARD CLOSEL, EMANUELE COCCIA, MATHILDE DE LAAGE, JAVIER FERNANDEZ CONTRERAS, KARSTEN FÖDINGER, ROLAND FREYMOND, EVA GIL LOPESINO, YAEL HAMEIRI SAINSAUX, CHRISTOPH HOLZ, ADAM JASPER, RAYMOND KRENMÜLLER, MARC LESCHELIER, ARNAUD MICHELET, MANUEL MONTENEGRO, FRANÇOIS NANTERMOD, CYRIL PASCHE, ANDREA PELLACANI, LAURA PEREZ LUPI, ROBERT PERROULAZ, ELISABETH TERRISSE DE BOTTON.

OUR PARTNERS IN GENEVA, WHO SHOWED US GREAT ENTHUSIASM IN COLLABORATION — UNFORTUNATELY OUR PROJECT HAD TO BE PUT ON HOLD, BUT WE DO VERY MUCH LOOK FORWARD TO PICKING UP WHERE WE LEFT OFF, HOPEFULLY IN THE FORTHCOMING ACADEMIC YEAR: LAURENT BADOUX (CHEF DE PROJET, DIRECTION DE LA PLANIFICATION CANTONALE), PATRIK FOUVY (DIRECTEUR DU SERVICE CANTONAL DU PAYSAGE ET DES FORÊTS), MARTIN HUGUES (DIRECTEUR GÉORÉFERENCEMENT ET COORDINATION DU TERRITOIRE, SERVICES INDUSTRIELS DE GENÈVE (SIG)), SIMON LAMUNIÈRE (DIRECTEUR ARTISTIQUE DE OPEN HOUSE 21), GILLES MULHAUSER (DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DE L’OFFICE CANTONAL DE L’EAU (OCEAU)), ARIANE WIDMER (DIRECTRICE DE LA DIRECTION DE LA PLANIFICATION CANTONALE).

THE STUDENT ASSISTANTS AND AIRBORNES, WHO DESPITE THEIR OWN HURDLES WERE NONETHELESS ABLE TO LEND THEIR KIND SUPPORT: MALAK ABDELHADY, EMMA AMMETER, MAENA ASTICHER, LERNA BAGDJIAN, ADRIEN BRESSAN, ARTHUR BÜRKI, HUGO CABARET, LOUIS CALOZ, LAURIANNE CHASSOT, GABRIELLE CHILINSKI, EVA COLLIER, CHARLES DARROUSEZ, BATTSOOJ ENKHBAATAR, JOAKIN GEBERT, FREDERICO GONZALEZ SILVA, ERIC NORMAN GOZZI, PABLO GRÜNIG, LÉONARDO HATOUM, HUGO LAVOREL, MIKE LERJEN, CLAIRE LOGOZ, ARTHUR LUTZELSCHWAB, MARTHE MAERTEN, BASTIAN MARZOLI, ROMAIN MASONI, ILARIA MICALE, NOEL MÀRTON MISKY, ISAAC MONIN, MARION MOUTAL, ALOYS MÜTZENBERG, CAMILLE PARAGON, NOÉMIE PERREGAUX, BENOÎT PERRIER, RAPHAEL RACCIO, DEREK RAUZDUEL, JOANNE ROBERT-NICOUD, SAHYAN RYTZELL, LUCAS SHOONER, RAPHAEL STÄUBLI,  TIAGO TEIXEIRA AND NOÉMIE ZURBRIGGEN.

THE ALICE FAMILY, TO WHOM WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THEIR TENDER AND KIND-HEARTEDNESS: QUENTIN ANDREOTTI, ORNELLA ANGELI, JOLAN BARTOLI, ALEXANDRE BARRÈRE, RAFFAEL BAUR, ARTHUR BLANC, ELENA CHIAVI, CAMILLE CLAESSENS VALLET, AURÉLIE DUPUIS, STÉPHANE GRANDGIRARD, PATRICIA GUAITA, PAULINE JALLAIS, JALON OYARZUN, JULIEN LAFONTAINE CARBONI, PAULINE LEFEBVRE, ZOÉ LEFEVRE, DARIO NEGUERELA, AURÈLE PULFER, JAIME RUIZ, GWENDOLINE TERNET, LUCAS UHLMANN, AND RUBEN VALDEZ

THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS, FOR YOUR TRUST IN ALICE DURING THIS CHALLENGING MOMENT. YOU HAVE TRULY ENDURED, AND DESPITE IT ALL, REMAINED DETERMINED AND SHOWED US THE TRUE MEANING OF ASPIRATION. WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL LOOK BACK AT THIS TOME AND BE REMINDED OF YOUR STRENGTH AND COURAGE: MARWAN ABANSIR, REMO ACKERMANN, RUBEN ALBRECHT, DIEGO LUIGI VARLAAM ALEMANY SCENINI, VITTORIA ALTANA, ARUDSAGINI ARUTSELVAN, VANESSA XUAN-AHN JEAN BAILEY, LIAM NATHAN DAVID BANCTEL, ANNA RACHEL SIMONE BENADOR, EMMA GHISLAINE MARIE BÉRARD, ELIA GREGORY BIANCHI, ICIAR MARIE BONNET, STEPHEN MANG-ENJOY BOPESO, ADRIEN BOSSEL, MOSTAFA AMINE BOUDAOUD, MARIE CLÉMENTINE APPOLINE BOURDON, NINON BOZON, INÈS BRANET, JULIEN BRESSOUD, REBECCA BROYE, LUCILE LOUISE PASCALE CHARAMEL, MARIE VALENTINE CATHERINE CHATAIN, LAURA CECILIA CIAK, BAPTISTE VIRGILE COMBES, JEANNE ROMANE YOLAINE CLAUDE COUELLE, LISE CLARA ALESSANDRA COURTIN, LOUIS CRISINEL, NINA THUY CRUCHAUD, SACHA ADRIEN CUDRÉ-MAUROUX, NOAH CURINGA, ALIX RENÉE DE COULON, PAUL IBAN MARIE GILLES DELORT LAVAL, DIMITRI JEAN JOSEPH DESCHENAUX, CHARLOTTE CAMILLE MARIE DESHAYES, KONSTANTINOS ATHANASIOS DIKAROS, QUENTIN GÉRARD ROLAND DOMÉZON, ARTHUR MARIE GRÉGOIRE DOUILLET, SOLANGE MARIE ANNICK MADELEINE DUJARDIN, ALEXANDER JEAN DÜRIG, MOHAMED HAMZA EL GRAOUI, LUCIEN NUMA EMERY, AYA ESSAOUDI, CLÉMENT ESTREICHER, JULE AUDREY FAVRE, CÉLIA FEOLE, ATRIEN PETER FLEISCHER, MATHILDE PAULINE FORSTER, MANON FREY, EVA GABRIELYAN, SÉBASTIEN DENYS PIERO GERBAIL, FANNY SOPHIE GHEZ, JACQUES HIPPOLYTE FRANCOIS GIGNOUX, DAVID GINDROZ, VICTOR ACHILLE GIRARDET, VIRGINIE GRAND, ROBIN SACHA GUGGER, LÉA MARIE CAMILLE GUILLOTIN, ANLI GUO, YOUSRA HAJOUBI, EMILIE IDA HAMEL, ANNA BORBÁLA HAUSEL, NILS MAXIME HAYOZ, AYMANE HAYYANE-FILIALI, CLAIRE MARIE EMMANUELLE HENNEL, MAXIME HON, PHIL HOSENEDER, FJOLLA HOXHAJ, FIDAN IBRAHIMI, BASILE AUGUSTIN IMMER, YOUSSEF TAIEB MOHANAD KALI, IREM GAMZE KESKIN, SU SIE KEUM, CAMILLE ELYSE KEVORKIAN, SILAN HOËL AWIHA SELAVEN KIBORA, ELISA KÜENZI, KENNETH HOPFENG LAM, YANN ALAIN FRÉDÉRIC LEFEBVRE, JOHAN STÉPHANE OSCAR LINK, ILAYDA MAKAS, JÉRÔME MARGUERON, GASPARD EMILE FRANCK MARTEAU, VINCENT MATHEZ, LUIS MELGAR, BASTIAN CYRIL MÉTRAL, FLAVIA MIZEL, MOHAMED KHALIL MOKADDEM, JULIAN MOLLIET, RAPHAËL ALEXIS MARIE MUDRY, HOANG NAM-PHUONG ISABELLE NGUYEN, GUILLAUME VAN MINH NGUYEN, MAUD ARMELLE ANNE NGUYEN HUYNH, JONAS PACIFIC NIKIAMBI, MOHAMMAD MAHDI OLIA, NIELS ARNAUD MELISSA ORNIGG, ANNA OZHIGANOVA, ECENAZ OZKORKUT, AUGUSTE MOZART PACHOUD, AURÉLIEN PACHOUD, REMO UMBERTO PANARESE, NATHAN PASCHE, FABIAN FRIDOLIN KYAW PERNER, LÉO ARNAUD PAUL LOUIS PERRIN, CLÉMENT MATHIEU PERRON, JULIA PETRACHENKO, MAXIME BENJAMIN EMILE PHILIPONA, CAROLINA THALIA PICHLER, GAUTIER ALOÏS GILBERT PIERRAT, FÉLIX MAX LÉO PLEINES, ARTHUR PROD’HOM, MIKAËL TRIEU VY REY, LOÏC REY, JEAN RICHTER, JEN-LUC HENRI ROBBINS, MARIA RUIZ MEDINA, LUCE FLORIANE SALVADÉ, NICOLY LETIZIA SANTOS COSTA, GAÉTAN MARTIN SARAIVA, HANYA MOHAMED HASSAN ABOUELLEIL SAYED, NOÉMIE SCHLUESSEL, MATÉO YANNICK JACQUES SCHNEIDER, PHILEAS ROBIN JOHANNES SCHULHOF, DYLAN PHOMCHANOK SCHWAIGER, RAHAF SHABAAN, HANIA SHARAFELDIN, SOPHIE JULIA SILLS, LORENZO SIMONTACCHI, KATARZYNA MARIA STACHNIO, NICOLAS KAMRAN STANISLAS, AXELLE SUTER, DELPHINE MAGALINE SUTER, MARVIN JEREMY TAJANA, VALENTINA DARIA TAKATCH, SACHA MARCEL JEAN TOUPANCE, CHLOÉ TOURNELLE, SABRINA TRAVAGLINI, ADRIANUS NANDA AMATYA CAHYA NUGRAHA TRIANTORO, YONAS ALEX TUKUABO, MATHILDE LAURE TURRIAN, CYRIL HENRI UDRIOT, ALIMA INÈS VILLAFRANCA, LÉNA AMBRE LOU VILLETELLE, ORIANNE VON FLÜE, BLAGICA VUCHKOVA, MAREK WAEBER, MAJA WALICZEK, CALVIN WANZENRIED, BENEDICT MAXIME FLORIAN WASSERFALLEN, MAËL ZAHAF, ARMAND NYVOLL ZANOTA AND LOÏC ZELTNER.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WORDS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO EXPRESS THE GRATITUDE THAT WE OWE TO THE ALICE Y1 STUDIO DIRECTORS, WHO WORKED TIRELESS- LY, COMPASSIONATELY AND WITH DEDICATION BEYOND MEASURE TO MAKE THIS VERY PARTICULAR YEAR THE SUCCESS THAT IT WAS: TIPHAINE ABENIA, MAXIME BONDU, CAMILLE FAUVEL, ROMAIN LEGROS, VICTOR MARÉCHAL, AGATHE MIGNON, NOEMI NIEDERHAUSER, MATTIA PRETOLANI, MYRIAM TREIBER, THIBAULT SMITH AND URI WEGMAN.

© COPYRIGHT 2020 FOR THE CONTENTS: AUTHORS, PHOTOGRAPHERS & DESIGNER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; NO ORIGINAL PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR OTHERWISE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE PUBLISHER.