Inaugural Week 2024-25

Workshop organized by Lola Jutzeler, Robin Delerce and Valentin Calame

Assisted by Chiara Kocis, Manuel Rossi, Marie Schild

The pumping station of the Berges de Vessy is a symbol of the industrial era, during which water and electricity networks were developed. The water is pumped, controlled, and integrated into a sprawling, invisible distribution network. The domestic end of this network consists of various devices that resemble attempts to recreate natural phenomena that we can control (the shower, the faucet, the heating system, etc).

To imagine interaction scenarios with these hidden water networks, students of the Bachelor’s in Interior Architecture worked on the artificial reproduction of water-related phenomena such as rain, streams, waterfalls, mist, springs, or puddles. This workshop was an opportunity to rethink our interactions with water as moments integrated into a broader cycle. The goal was to question water recycling, rainwater harvesting, plant watering, river water filtration, etc.

In the Vessy landscape, where architecture is a machine with its quirks and flaws, the students imagined a whimsical playground: trees that rain, rectangular puddles forming on smooth surfaces, a twisted fountain reproducing morning mist, waterfalls cascading down stairs, bathrooms emerging from the riverbed, and metal streams watering the last sunflower.