Embrace the change - A student housing project in Geneva

Arthur Stepczynski

The énoncé théorique focused on the significance of comfort awareness as a way of fostering a better appropriation of our living space. Defined as the ability to act and be in control of one’s environment and its changes of states and conditions, the process of comfort awareness advocates for initiating variations in our environment and human state – as in change we ignite our consciousness. Consequently, the Master’s project aims to reconnect human beings with their climate through the integration and acceptance of these variations within the dwelling. Defining different spaces and spatial experiences by their relationship to the environment and its conditions (cold, hot, wet, dry, bright, humid, etc.), rather than by a predefined program. Breaking away from the steady-state model of today’s housing, which advocates a single, unchangeable and unnatural lifestyle; hindering personal appropriation. Accordingly, the project seeks to enable the inhabitants to act with full awareness of their environment’s stimuli, whilst allowing them to act freely in their use of a space. Through the student housing program, and in response to the asocial student housing model, the project also responds to the need of social interaction within housing (intimate, communal, collective). As a result, the project becomes a form of “embrace the change” through three overlapping perspectives: Climatic, social and usage variabilities. Thus everything becomes a question of variation.

Files
Énoncé (PDF), Planche (PDF)
LINKS
Team
Teachers:
Marilyne Andersen, James Binning, Camille Sineau
Supervision team:
Andersen, Marilyne (dir. pédagogique) ; Binning, James (prof.) ; Sineau, Camille (maître EPFL) ; Wéry, Jeanne (expert)
Professor in charge of the statement:
Andersen, Marilyne (ENAC IA LIPID)
Unit:
ENAC-SAR, LIPID
Infos
Year:
2024
Period:
Master, Fall
Category:
Master Project
Copyright:
CC BY Licence
Theoretical statement

Comfort Awareness, redefining our approach to comfort in architecture

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