The 2021 City of Ecublens Prize for a project carried out at LAST
Part'âge © EPFL / PDM Juliette Armanet & Morgane Voirol
The master project of Juliette Armanet and Morgane Voirol, carried out at the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), received the City of Ecublens Prize, which was awarded to them during the recent Master's degree graduation ceremony 2021. Their work focuses on the notion of intergenerational housing in the context of a long life-expectancy society.
The observation of demographic trends generates growing concerns about the aging of the population. The increase in the population aged 65 or older will be strong in the coming decades as the largest baby boomer generations gradually enter their senior years. According to the analyses of the Federal Statistical Office, this increase will amount to about 70% by 2050. In other words, by 2050, Switzerland will have approximately 2.7 million people aged 65 or more (according to the reference scenario), compared to 1.6 million at the end of 2019.
Because of their density, proximity, amenity, and functional mix, urban areas can provide a suitable setting for intergenerational housing. However, this issue is only partially addressed in current practices. It seems important to explore the possibility of models that respond more fluidly to needs that evolve throughout the life cycle. Here, the objectives are to integrate different possibilities in a perspective of transition towards sustainability: the complementarity between generations, the flexibility of appropriation, adaptability of spaces, and mutuality of uses.
By addressing these multiple questions, the work of Juliette Armanet and Morgane Voirol highlights that the neighborhood scale can be adequate to better consider the changing socio-cultural needs of a long-lived society. Their approach made it possible to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze these issues, and then to develop from an architectural point of view an intergenerational, ecological, and evolutionary housing project in Chêne-Bourgeries (Geneva).
The follow-up group of this master's project, entitled « Part’âge : Logements mixtes et évolutifs à Chêne-Bourgeries (Genève)», consisted of Prof. Emmanuel Rey (supervisor, LAST), Florence Graezer Bideau (professor, CDH), and Sara Formery (teaching assistant, LAST).