Durabilis Award 2025
Maquette du projet © EPFL / PDM Zélie Cortès
The master's project by Zélie Cortès, carried out at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), is one of the winners of the Prix Durabilis 2025, a joint award of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Université de Lausanne (UNIL). In the context of urban transition, her work presents an architectural approach to the adaptation and rehabilitation of residential complexes in the face of socio-climatic vulnerabilities.
By 2060, multiple built-up areas will face unfavorable bioclimatic conditions due to urban heat. In this context, caring for and adapting our existing buildings—even the most ordinary ones—has become a key challenge. Climate vulnerability, which combines socio-economic fragility with a disadvantaged location, exposes certain areas to a double burden. This is the case for a residential complex in the Gravette neighborhood north of Nyon in the Canton of Vaud.
Built in the 1970s–80s, the complex is reaching its first life cycle. Its need for renovation therefore becomes an opportunity for a project. The intervention addresses socio-climatic vulnerabilities by drawing on the site’s intrinsic qualities through a “make do” approach. The semi-underground ground floors, whose cooling potential is enhanced by passive strategies, are renovated and converted into local services. These new programs respond to essential needs—health, food, training, and cohesion—thereby reinforcing community resilience.
The renovation prioritizes resource efficiency and respects the building’s existing character. A continuous landscape is woven between these new uses and the outdoor spaces, where the topography is reshaped, vegetation densified, and water reintroduced, creating a genuine climate refuge. The identity of the place is preserved and enriched with the qualities needed to overcome its vulnerabilities. In this way, climate resilience becomes a social catalyst, and coolness a shared resource.
The follow-up group of this master's project entitled “Canopée sociale : adaptation et réhabilitation d'un ensemble résidentiel à Nyon face aux vulnérabilités socio-climatiques”, consisted of Prof. Emmanuel Rey (supervisor, LAST), Prof. Marilyne Andersen (professor, LIPID) and Sophie Lufkin (mentor, LAST).