Memory matters
AR-695 / 3 credits
Teacher(s): Graezer Bideau Florence, Guidetti Elena, Lambec Barbara Ludivine Justine, Robiglio Matteo
Language: English
Frequency
Only this year
Summary
Materials embody memories of craft, industry, culture and landscape. Ordinary buildings hold layered legacies yet pose ecological and reuse challenges. The course rethinks heritage through materials, examining their assessment, documentation, and potential for careful disassembly and reuse.
Content
Materials carry memory: of craft, industry, culture, and landscape. Across many territories, ordinary buildings shaped by former productive and domestic practices embody a layered legacy, while simultaneously posing ecological, material-waste, and adaptative reuse challenges.
This course critically reconsiders the concept of heritage in relation to materials and their reuse potential. It investigates how built matter can be assessed, documented, disassembled, displaced, and reassembled while preserving both tangible and intangible values.
The theoretical framework engages with secular reuse practices, the historical use of spolia, and the relationship between memory preservation and ecological transformation. Particular attention is given to the environmental impacts embedded in construction materials and to the regenerative potential of reuse-oriented design.
The core of the course consists of a research-by-design and design-and-build intensive seminar held on site in Verbania (Lake Maggiore, Italy), from 9-13 September 2026. The workshop focuses on a dismissed brewery complex, transforming it into a living laboratory where participants conduct historical, material, and structural analyses while engaging directly in selective disassembly and reassembly practices. Students will assist and engage with the consolidation works ongoing on site, to include these palliative approaches on the existing tower in the cycle of reuse both theoretically and practically.
The didactic experience combines expertise from POLITO (Adaptive Reuse and Construction History research groups) and EPFL (SLX-Structural Exploration Lab, HAT-Heritage, Anthropolgy and Technlologies research group and LAPIS-Art of Sciences Lab).
The expected outcome is twofold: 1) A tangible artefact constructed from reused on-site components; 2) A graphical and methodological toolkit reinterpreting reuse practices, providing guidelines for identifying, deconstructing, evaluating, and reintegrating building components in ways that respect memory, enhance circularity, and regenerate post-industrial ecologies.
Through multiscalar fieldwork and experimentation, disassembly is framed not as demolition, but as an act of conservation and adaptive transformation.
The course concludes with a public exhibition in Lausanne (February 2027) and will culminate in a scientific publication (Spring 2027) collecting the research outcomes.
Structure and Calendar (Blended Format + Intensive Seminar)
PhD Seminar introduction - Turin (Polito) - 4 hours
- 10 June 2026 (14h-18h): - 4h lectures (blended for EPFL students - hybrid)
On-site intensive workshop - Verbania
- 9-13 September 2026 - 20h on site work
Day 0 - Arrival and site introduction
Day 1 - Adressing the materials (survey and mapping)
Day 2 - On-site disassembly
Day 3 - Reassembly strategies
Day 4 - Presentation of outcomes
EPFL-based seminar (blended for POLITO students - hybrid)
Friday 18 September 2026 - 4h reviews
Seminar and exhibition - Lausanne
Within 22-27 February 2027 - 2 full days (12h) final reviews + setting + presentation + opening
Invited lecturers: Lionel Devlieger (Rotor DC, Ghent University); Caitlin DeSilvey (University of Exeter); Cornelius Holtorf (Linnaeus University)
Note
The teaching staff includes: Valentina Burgassi (Polito); Caterina Baroglio (Polito); Anna Proskuriakova (tutor Polito); Reda Berrada (tutor EPFL)
Keywords
Heritage, Materials, Dissassembly, Reuse, Construction
Learning Prerequisites
Required courses
A basic knowledge of construction is welcomed, but not compulsory.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Critically interpret heritage as a material and ecological construct
- Conduct historical, structural, and material assessments of existing buildings
- Develop strategies for selective disassembly and component recovery
- Integrate reused structural and architectural elements into new configurations
- Assess / Evaluate ecological, regulatory, and cultural implications of reuse practicess
- Produce research-based design outputs combining analytical rigor and material experimentation
- Contribute to a collective scientific publication
In the programs
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: Project report (session free)
- Subject examined: Memory matters
- Courses: 20 Hour(s)
- Project: 32 Hour(s)
- Type: optional
- Number of places: 15
- Exam form: Project report (session free)
- Subject examined: Memory matters
- Courses: 20 Hour(s)
- Project: 32 Hour(s)
- Type: mandatory