Studio BA5 (summacumfemmer)

SUCCESSIONAL DWELLINGS

This is going to be an experimental semester, based on the concept of 'succession'. Succession is an ecological term describing the sequence in which plant and animal communities replace one another over time at a given site. We adopt this concept to re-imagine building and inhabiting as a form of succession: every moment in a building's life hosts a particular community of inhabitants, only to be succeeded by others.

1 Disturbances
A successional sequence usually begins with a disturbance - wether storm, wildfire, clearance or sealing of the soil. However devastating such damage may be, it also opens space for pioneer organisms and, in turn, for the many follow-on communities they invite. In the studio we will build our houses on plots in Lausanne that have also been disturbed: by rockfalls, landfilling or dioxin pollution. Carefully studying these sites, with all their visible and invisible histories, will be an important first step for us.

2 Pioneers
Directly afterwards we will start to build on those disturbed sites. Just as pioneer plants put down roots in disturbed ground, we start with the foundations of a house, asking, for example, whether screw piles or rubble-stone footings can become part of a larger root system. We test these questions in pairs at large working models that evolve throughout the semester.

3 Passing-on
Now - after a few weeks in the studio - something unusual will happen: we pass on our project to another group and receive a project in return. Yes! We as architects will become successors throughout the whole semester, several times. That makes us aware that everything we create will be subject to change at some point in the future - but also that this is a joyful way of working collectively in the studio. One might think this could be the end of authorship in architecture. Actually, it is the opposite: a condensation of multiple authorships, merged in constantly growing projects. We will not have traditional crits or presentations. Instead, we will hold four handovers, in which groups collectively hand over and take over.

4 Stratification
Being constantly passed around through the studio, our houses grow denser and denser. Although always under construction, they are inhabited. We record this simultaneous building and dwelling through photographs of our large models and additional drawings. To capture all scales, we will combine 1:1 to 1:1,000 in a single model. Daring! Over time we learn which materials can grow along with the house and how to steer them in a gardener's manner. We delight in wandering components and puzzle over invasive elements; we test which materials can serve as a solid wall for one season before migrating to another part of the project.

5 Roles
If buildings are constantly evolving like organisms, the question arises as to who will take on these ongoing construction tasks. Can those who live in the buildings also build walls, lay bricks and move doors themselves? On a study trip to Leipzig (Germany), we will immerse ourselves in the world of self-build for a long weekend. We will lend a hand in a non-profit building project and learn about guided self-build strategies that go beyond the cliche of DIY. The practical experience will help us develop alternative forms of building and living for our studio projects.

6 Clearing
Mid-semester our houses reach a stage of maximum density and diversity. Now we learn how important it is to thin, prune and clear - creating space for yet further communities and thus keeping the process of succession alive. We discover the productive power of selective felling, so different from demolition or destruction.

7 Compost
Towards the end of the semester we will increasingly work with the leftovers - the cuttings from our previous actions. We try not to throw anything away, but to make it productive on the spot: as new building materials for alternative forms of living. We are delighted with those materials that can simply be reused or composted, and we also look for solutions for materials already in the world that we would prefer to see disappear because of their toxicity.

8 Collection
By term's end we stand before large models that have passed through many successive states, gone through many hands, and been captured in series of images and drawings. It is this evolving process - with all its interim conditions - that interests us far more than any final, fixed stage. We will spend the last few weeks finishing the documentation of this process: together, we will distil the most intriguing moments and insights from the previous phases and transformations. We will record these in the form of a cross-project, illustrated glossary. The final step will be a joint review of all successions.

9 Studio environment
The studio is aimed at students who are open to experimental teaching and working formats. Students generally work in groups of two. However, each group also works with the other groups by passing on work stages several times during the semester. Projects are rotated and developed by many students in successions - a continuous process of transformation. Students should therefore have a particular interest in collaborative working methods. A particular focus of teaching is on very practical, material-related construction techniques for experimental forms of living. In the studio, we work with large models that show scales from 1:1 to 1:1,000. The semester is accompanied by guest lectures from external contributors on topics such as process-oriented construction, self-build techniques and material cycles.

10 Costs
Study trip to Leipzig, Germany (3 days): approx. CHF 300-400.