Housing, between experiences and discoveries
Rigaud 55 © Bonhote Zapata architectes
Philippe Bonhôte, a partner of the Bonhôte Zapata office, was the guest of Prof. Emmanuel Rey’s studio at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) to talk about the key issues of contemporary housing. His conference allowed students to discover several projects that are part of simultaneous research on spatial quality, flexibility of use, and typological innovation.
After his architecture studies at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Philippe Bonhôte pursued research and teaching activities as a scientific collaborator at EPFL, then as a professor at the Haute école du paysage, d’ingénierie et d'architecture de Genève (HEPIA). At the same time, he developed an intense architectural practice and created with Julia Zapata the Bonhôte Zapata architectes office, based in Geneva since 2003.
Between experiences and discoveries, the conference highlighted the specific characteristics inherent to contemporary housing in contexts located at some distance from the city centre. Through their spatial inventiveness, typological research, and precision of the drawings, the examples presented demonstrate the conceptual interweaving of multiple themes crossed with the architectural approach. We can cite the relation to the landscape, the transition between public and private, intermediate spaces, typological flexibility, use value of spaces, and social and ecological responsibility.
Resonating with the issues addressed in the RHODANIE URBAINE studio, these multiple considerations have enriched the students’ range of references in terms of contemporary housing.