HOUSE 2

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, ALICE, 2017

‘House 2’ it is a collaborative project between 180 first-year architecture students of the EPFL, in which the students proposed possible scenarios in order to revive a public square in the city of Zurich. 

Similarly to the previous year’s ‘House 1’ project, the intention was to build an elementary structure into which different sub-projects could be integrated. This 70 meter “proto-structure” hosted 12 sub-projects – like a bar and an open-air cinema – which had to harmonise with each others accurately, requiring a perfect cooperation among the students. 

The timber structure and the student’s designs have been entirely prefabricated in Lausanne, then shipped to Zurich and re-assembled in less than 10 days as a public, temporary structure dedicated to social and cultural use. It is the result of various architectural intentions, designed, hand-drawn and hand-crafted during 2 months by the students.

«The project builds upon the studio’s HOUSE 1 experiment – an on-campus installation in Lausanne, by students for students. HOUSE 2 evolved from this premise, setting itself in relationship to the city, and becoming a common place of activity and urban participation for all. ‘HOUSE 2’ expands the practice of collaboration into the public sphere of the city,’ Dieter Dietz says.» designboom, june 6th, 2017