Topographie

Haus Mühlerain, Meilen (ZH) © Ralph Feiner / pool Architekten

Haus Mühlerain, Meilen (ZH) © Ralph Feiner / pool Architekten

Floris Besserer, partner architect of pool Architekten in Zurich, 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 "Topographie", his lecture allowed students to discover collective housing projects confrontingthe specific challenges of the slope in an urbanized environment.

Floris Besserer, an architect who graduated TU Darmstadt, founded bunq architects in 2007 with Laurent Gaille and Julien Grisel following winning competition projects in the Lake Geneva region. The office's practice areas cover a broad spectrum of program and missions, both small and large scale.

The projects of pool architekten are carried out in small teams where the discussion of architectural concepts is an integral part of all phases, from the first draft to the realization phase. They are nourished by the discovery of a site and by this knowledge that is gradually acquired while building. The conference highlighted these office's motivations through four projects located on sloping sites: the Auhalde terrace house in Untersiggenthal,the Mühlerain intermediate housing complex in Meilen, the BDZ housing cooperative in Zurich-Wipkingen and the competition project for a housing complex on the Engimatt site in Zurich. These examples revealed the complexity but also the richness of the situations induced by the topography and the opportunities that they represent for the urban and architectural project.

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.