THE BRIDGE explores the possibilities of temporary architectures in the specific context of Geneva’s European Heritage Days, a traditional city festival, on Jêune Genevois day. The Pont Du Montblanc, where the traffic will be closed off for the weekend, is a crucial and central infrastructure of Geneva. It will become the stage of multiple design interventions, installations, pavilions for several hours.
Since 1994, the European Heritage Days are an opportunity to discover the built and landscaped heritage of the canton of Geneva, through a series of visits to places that are usually not at all accessible to the public. To make a festival out of it is to celebrate its community by centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of what makes the common ground of this community. A festival constitutes typical cases of glocalization, as well as the high culture-low culture interrelationship. Central to its success is inclusivity, ensuring accessibility and resonance across diverse demographics. Our project prioritizes this ethos, aiming to create festival environments that cater to all ages, abilities, and backgrounds seamlessly integrating features like wheelchair accessibility, sensory-friendly elements, and amenities for families. To insure this THE BRIDGE focuses on the temporal (in time) layering of the spaces. Like in the dance of Tango, where dancers circulate in the same space together, each one following their patterns and trying to avoid crashing with the others, this coexistence of various activities and bodies creates complexity and beauty at the same time.
Embracing the principles of sustainability, students should explore opportunities to work with reused materials, borrowed materials, or those ready for further reuse. By giving new life to existing resources, we can minimize waste, reduce our carbon footprint, and contribute to a more environmentally friendly festival.
- Professeur-e: Perron Paule
‘Cinema is a verb’ is a master’s studio observing the meeting between a mode of construction (the temporary) and a very specific program (the movie theater). The cinema department of HEAD – Genève finds itself in dire need of a space for pedagogical and event-related movie projections, and we will conceive proposals that bring together the very down-to-earth necessities of the program and the various imaginaries that it carries. We will challenge what a cinema can be, what a temporary construction is expected to feel and sound like, what it means (both for interior architecture and cinema) to emit an image.
The design will be carried out in three phases: a) by approaching the program and its potentials via a collection of shared references; b) by making concrete proposals both individually and in small groups; c) by working as a large team in order to cover all the complexities of a 1:1 construction. At the end of the semester, the collective project will reach a level of resolution allowing it to be carried towards realization in 2024.
- Professeur-e: Delerce Robin
"The Interiors of Humanitarian Design" investigates the use of emerging technologies, design processes, and political science knowledge to address humanitarian crises, with a particular emphasis on interior spaces. This interdisciplinary course aims to find innovative solutions and improve the living conditions of individuals affected by humanitarian emergencies.
Contemporary conflicts are more frequent and protracted, refugee flows are rapidly destabilizing geopolitical structures, and humanitarian actors are under growing threat. Considering these challenges, the course is structured around experimental action research, in which international relations scholars will collaborate with architects, engineers, and others to co-design three technological innovations intended to improve humanitarian practice and conditions. The goals of the course are: 1) to explore how we can better integrate 'high theoretical' and 'critical' social scientific concepts and theories into the realm of practice, including humanitarian work, 2) to examine the potential for closer collaboration between social sciences and engineering, architecture, and design practices and knowledge, and 3) to address the urgent task, particularly in light of recent geopolitical events, of working collaboratively across disciplines to improve the conditions of the world's most vulnerable populations.
This course is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Copenhagen, the Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD – Genève, and the EssentialTech Lab at EPFL Lausanne. It includes contributions from partners such as Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Terre des Hommes, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as partnerships with research institutions in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Professeur-e: Fernandez Contreras Javier
- Professeur-e: Greder Damien