English

WS-2014 Professor Joris Fach and Ignacio Bóscolo – 2nd Supervisor Roger Bundschuh

Every now and then, we all need a break. To unwind from the bustling city, people flock towards weekend homes, seaside cabins, cottages, or alpine refuges. And while the urban and prosperous parts of the European continent keep being densified and suburbanized, some of its rather remote regions are returning to the wild.
This studio sets out to design recreational places within these abandoned and forgotten places. However, other than simply building new retreats in untouched landscapes, we will identify existing and neglected architectures as anchors for our projects. We will measure them and analyse the specific materials, as well as architectural details that characterize them. Equally important will be their setting.
Especially in Europe, scarcely populated regions are often natural reserves of one kind or another. We will evaluate the sensitivity of these environments and define touristic potentials and compatible programs accordingly. With little industry, oftentimes crumbling infrastructure, and the young moving away, many remote regions turn to tourism as an important source of income. We will thus – on a larger scale – look into the economics of various forms of tourism and their repercussion with the preservation of natural environments. We will explore appropriate modes of access, required levels of comfort, and degrees of maintenance. We will also think through the difficult logistics of building in remote locations, from the sourcing and delivery of materials to their assembly on site.

Selected Students: