Starting of the UPCYCLING teaching unit
Salle de gymnastique Maurabia à Renens (VD) © LAST-EPFL
As part of the axis « Integrated Design, Architecture and Sustainability (IDEAS) », the UPCYCLING teaching unit (UEK) focuses on the integration of sustainability issues into architectural design, with special attention to savings in resources. On the occasion of its launch, UE K carried out a visit of the Maurabia gymnasium in Renens. This architectural excursion resonates with the programmatic issues explored in this course, which focuses on the interdisciplinary design of a temporary and sustainable sports facility.
At first sight, notions of temporary architecture and sustainability may seem contradictory. Indeed, the concept of sustainable development is fundamentally based on the idea of long-term action. Therefore, it may seem out of the ordinary to associate it with practices that, by essence, aim at meeting punctual or ephemeral needs.
However, the term “sustainable” (durable in French) should not be understood in terms of an architectural object’s perennity, but rather as the search of a “state of durability” by the pursuit of a proper balance between the needs to be met and the means implemented in order to attain them. Thus, considering sustainability as a constant search for an optimal equilibrium between needs and means, temporary architecture appears as a fertile ground for reflection and experimentation.
The teaching unit centers around this challenge applied on the design of a temporary architectural object. More concretely, the aim is to design a temporary sports facility that incorporates principles of upcycling through a series of iterative steps. This design process enables students to apply sustainability criteria and to assess both quantitatively and qualitatively the performance of their project, including user comfort and the ecological impact induced by their design.
It was with this perspective in mind that the visit of the Maurabia gymnasium in Renens (VD) was organized. The recent transformation, renovation, and extension work by Esposito & Javet Architects pursued a dual objective: on the one hand, to bring the existing building into compliance with current standards (particularly seismic safety and thermal performance), and on the other, to adapt the sports facility to contemporary uses.