Matières à réflexion
Ecole de Riaz (FR) © FAZ architectes
Véronique Favre and Tanya Zein, partners at FAZ architectes in Geneva, were guests of Prof. Emmanuel Rey’s studio at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) to talk about their work as architects through a selection of projects. Entitled "Matières à réflexion" (Food/materials for thought), their talk gave students an opportunity to discover projects tackling the challenges of low-carbon construction.
An architect who graduated from EPFL in 1996, Tanya Zein acquired her professional experience working in various architectural offices between Lisbon, London, Beirut and Geneva. For her part, Véronique Favre graduated as an architect from EPFL in 2002 and gained professional experience in Lausanne, Geneva and Barcelona. They joined forces in 2016 to found FAZ architects in Geneva.
FAZ architects' projects are inspired and enriched by their contexts. The physical, ecological and emotional qualities of buildings play an important role in their design. Particular attention is paid to the poetry of small things, materials, textures, the sound of spaces and traces of use.
The lecture highlighted these motivations through three projects: the elementary school in Riaz (FR), where the ecological construction principles left visible are intended as a means of transmission; the hangar in Meyrin (GE), which explores the reuse of recuperated elements; and the soft densification in Pully (VD), through the vertical extension of an urban villa and the construction of a low-carbon housing building.
Resonating with the issues addressed in the studio RELIEFS URBAINS, the conference allowed to put into perspective the didactic approach, from the urban project to the construction detail as a relevant process for the transformation of urban territories in transition.