Studio led by Line Fontana

Assisted by Thierry Buache

The studio Depuis l’intérieur (From the inside) wants to offer an important voice to interior architects in the debate on the future of the city and housing. Beyond the concerns on new buildings and urban periphery, the studio wonders about the adaptation of the housing of the city from the inside. Students had to reveal the potentialities of existing housing to the evolution of contemporary lifestyles, and to propose new socio-economic and cultural perspectives: from the building to the neighborhood and from the neighborhood to the city.

Taking Geneva as a study case, the studio focused on three housing buildings: all located in the city center, and each built in a period representative of the evolution of the city. Students deeply analyzed the three buildings (historically, spatially and on materials). Then decided which element should be revealed and / or transformed in order to adapt the habitat to contemporary lifestyles. New programs designed by students should be included in the existing architecture and must question the use of housing as well as proposing typologies related to cohabitation.