Studio - LE GRAND GENÈVE SOCIAL CLUB
February 2024 to June 2024
Studio led by David Fagart & Line Fontana (Fagart & Fontana)
Assisted by Maria-Clara Castioni
"The Grand Genève Social Club" is part of the exploration of new architectural practices in the contemporary climatic metropolis, particularly in the field of interior architecture. The climatic metropolis is the metropolis that engages in its manufacturing practices the three major ruptures that structure and will structurally shape our contemporary society: 1. The climate, and how metropolitan territories are able to respond to the challenges and collectively shared ambitions during the COP 21 in Paris, where the Planet becomes a new actor that must sit at the negotiating table. 2. The question of acceleration or deceleration, or how new technologies are transforming our ways of producing the city and its territories, of rebuilding a new form of urban economy from the very large to the small scale. 3. The question of the commons, or the emergence of a more horizontal society where populations are more inclined to want to play a role in the making of their environment, near and far.
In this context, we propose to students to reflect on the transformation and adaptation of an ordinary heritage located in the Praille Acacias Vernet sector in Geneva, the PAV, and to engage with the themes of built heritage, commons, and sustainable development (social, cultural, economic, and environmental) to explore the territories of a new ecology. It is a matter of reversing to think about the city from the inside out. How can interior architecture influence the nature of interactions between living beings and their environment?
Based on a programmatic narrative developed by themselves, their proposal should embody the idea of a Grand Genève Social Club. The Grand Genève Social Club is a new generation building. It is designed as an inclusive and productive infrastructure. Economic, simple, flexible, and durable, it is a resource building that will be able to adapt over time to the evolutions of the activities it hosts. The Grand Geneva Social Club is a living tool dedicated to positive energies seeking new forms of habitat corresponding to their practices and diversities.
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