Relearning Togetherness proposes the rehabilitation of an existing warehouse in the Lausanne area, approached not as a residual or obsolete structure, but as an active and valuable piece of urban infrastructure. Rather than pursuing densification through demolition and replacement, the project frames reuse as a deliberate architectural and political act. Through the study and development of the mat-floor plan typology (la nappe), it demonstrates how inherited industrial buildings can be reactivated to accommodate high-density collective housing while preserving their structural and spatial capacities.
This architectural position responds to the increasing atomization of contemporary society, in which individuals often live alone, detached from collective frameworks and shared responsibilities. In opposition to this condition of isolation, the project advances an architecture that reclaims togetherness as a social, spatial, and political value. Grounded in principles of honesty, transparency, and equity, it redefines the sharing of space as a negotiated and inclusive practice, establishing an egalitarian framework in which all inhabitants are afforded comparable spatial qualities and social conditions.
At the ground level, spatial organization is structured by the existing grid of mushroom columns, around which kitchens and communal tables are arranged. These elements operate simultaneously at the scale of the individual and the collective, generating moments of intimacy within a broader shared field. The openness of the plan is selectively articulated through movable curtains, which introduce degrees of privacy while encouraging interaction and collective negotiation. On the upper level, duplex units follow the rhythm of the shed structures. Their transparency supports the formation of smaller communities, while their internal intimacy offers moments of retreat from the shared life below.
The two levels are spatially and socially interrelated through the repetition of patios and staircases, which punctuate the project and mediate between differing patterns of occupation. These vertical connections reinforce continuity across scales, linking collective life on the ground floor with more domestic and introspective conditions above.
Ultimately, Relearning Togetherness reframes housing as a space of belonging, where architectural rehabilitation becomes a means of restoring dignity, not only to its inhabitants, but also to a society in need of renewed forms of collective life.