Obstacles and opportunities
Werk 11, Biel-Bienne © Bart & Buchhofer Architekten
Stephan Buchhofer, associate architect of Bart & Buchhofer Architekten in Biel, was the guest of Prof. Emmanuel Rey’s studio at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) to talk about his work as an architect through a selection of projects. Entitled "Obstacles et opportunités", his lecture allowed students to discover renovation and new construction projects confronting the specific challenges of the city of Biel.
Stephan Buchhofer, a self-taught architect, founded Bart & Buchhofer Architekten AG in Biel in 1996 with Jürg Bart. In addition to his work as an architect, he has been a member of the FBA (Fachausschuss für Bau und Aussenraum) expert committee of the city of Thun since 2021 and is co-initiator and chairman of the board of WOWimmobilien AG "Werk 11" in Biel. He also taught for several years at the HEIA in Fribourg.
The conference highlighted certain specificities inherent to the creation and renovation of buildings within a dense city. In that sense, it brought out the strong contextual anchorage of the office's work through three axes of reflection: "context and typology" with a building of six dwellings on a constrained site, "program and motive" with the renovation of a former school into a place of extracurricular activities, and "structure and space" with a four-story wooden building whose flexibility allows it to accommodate offices as well as housing.
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.
