Understanding our existing heritage
Valentin Bourdon et Paola Viganò collaborent au Centre Habitat de l'EPFL. © Alain Herzog / EPFL
In this article appearing in a local newspapers, Paola Viganò, head of EPFL’s Habitat Research Center, and Valentin Bourdon, its coordinator, highlight why it’s so important to understand past architects’ intentions when adapting heritage buildings to modern contexts.
EPFL’s historic building has been added to Switzerland’s Inventory of Cultural Property, serving to remind us of several truths and responsibilities. The first truth is that architecture ages over time, too. Perhaps faster now than ever before; perhaps even faster than we ourselves age.Previously, we constructed buildings to leave our mark, to transcend, to live in.Now we’re investing our resources in keeping the Earth habitable.
The 1972 part of our Lausanne campus has received a grade 1 designation, which illustrates how long-standing buildings can become part of our heritage. Such is the case with Méridienne, EPFL’s original building. With its brutalist architecture and underappreciated yet no less valuablefeatures, this massive structure ismore than a building.It’s a complete landscape of common spaces, streets, rooms, patios, gardens and pathways. The Méridienne’s legacy is important both culturally and environmentally. It’s a testament to a distinct architectural and social era, and can now be seen through the lens of resource scarcity and viewed asarepository of grey energy to be put to new use.
Today, standing the test of time is no longer enough – the priority must now be to adapt.
Today, standing the test of time is no longer enough – the priority must now be to adapt. We must adapt to climate change urgently by transforming our lifestyles and our actions. However, the impatience of modern society shines a light on the lengthy cycles of previous eras – on forgotten, ignored or otherwise misunderstood values that still hold their worth and meaning, showing us the way forward.
Reframing the past
To promote our heritage and protect our environment, we must also closely examine – if not wholly reimagine – architecture from the past: the visions of architects forged through the realities of decades past, their overlooked intentions, and their structures fixed in space and rooted in time. Highlighting such issues of heritage from modern to contemporary cities demands informed action. By making careful choices and measured change, we can avoid the most drastic sacrifices in the transformation process. This will require moderation, attentive listening, and an intimate understanding of a building’s original, hidden and potential qualities.
This close reading, however, will be only a starting point. From there, we can use existing construction sites and materials to create new aesthetics and new forms of poetic expression. Such an approach could and should be introduced at all levels and across all areas, from individual buildings all the way to cities, infrastructure, and entire regions. We need to instill a culture of renewing the built environment to one that ushers in the social and environmental transition. This holistic approach would address those who live in our buildings as well as everything that forms the contours of our daily existence, from how we move through space to how we impact the world of today and tomorrow.
Paola Viganò has been head of the Habitat Research Center since it was founded. Valentin Bourdon coordinates the Center’s activities. They and a group of colleagues are currently writing a book on Baukultur.
- This article appears in the October 2022 issue of Habitat magazine, which is published by three local dailies – La Côte (Vaud Canton), Le Nouvelliste (Valais Canton) and Arcinfo (Neuchâtel Canton) – under a joint initiative between EPFL and ESH Médias to showcase the R&D being carried out at EPFL on advanced construction techniques.