Workshop tutors : Dieter Dietz, Javier Fernandez-contreras, Daniel zamarbide
HEAD Assistants : Bertrand van dorp, Camille Bagnoud, Manon portera, paule perron, phi nguyen, Valentin dubois
EPFL Assistants : Augustin Clément, Mattia Pretolani, Maxime Bondu, Romain Legros, Victor Marechal, Uri Wegman
During the opening week of 2020, Bachelor students in Interior Architecture from HEAD – Genève and the EPFL’s ALICE studio carried out a territorial observation study of Greater Geneva.
This opening workshop aims to rethink units of measurement in times of Covid-19 in order to develop new anthropomorphic, digital and temporal units of measurement. On defined geographical axes, the students analysed the territory according to different subjects of study: the structures of passage and pathways, soil composition, the measurement of space by the body, the subjective reading of the territory by walking, the insular spaces of production and exploitation, and the body as a magnetic antenna. During the second part of the week, the HEAD students appropriated the themes by making large, interactive ATLAS maps that reflect their research.
© HEAD – Genève, Zoé Aubry
© HEAD – Genève, Zoé Aubry
This experiment was based on the search for magnetic points using hand-held copper rods. While walking along the banks of the Rhône in the Lignon district, each pair of students listed a series of points in places with high magnetic energy. These different routes, symbolised by tracings, were our starting point for composing the map. The idea was to privilege the lived experience, the sensorial walk rather than the geographical aspect. We therefore created a sensory map, composed of our feelings, sensations and emotions experienced during these days of exploration of the territory.
The text and the creation of the card itself follows the same process, created as a performance where instinct, gesture and feeling are central to the action.
© HEAD – Genève, General Plan
" When I took the path I didn’t immediately realize that the real good road was a little higher up, I thought I could walk along the Rhone river, but I found myself on this small path, scattered with old branches and fallen trees. It seemed as if the new road had gradually taken over the original path, leaving it abandoned. But never mind, I continued on my way, thinking that like me, some more daring hikers had tried to take this path at the end of the road.
I finally reached a dead end, which was to be expected. But I had felt the energy of this once-traveled place, which was now only the trace of a passage. The man’s footsteps had packed the earth, and his arms had cut down a few trees, one in particular that caught my eye.The corpse of this giant, who had once stood upright, lay scattered on the ground, its various parts laid side by side like the puzzle of his limbs, easily reassembled. The tree was arranged in the slope, as if it could be pushed to burst out like a card tower.
It was as if nature had already welcomed it in its new form, covering its different parts with ivy and moss. The presence of water had surely accentuated its fall, causing, year after year, the land to slowly become more than a huge slope whose direction could be clearly felt. The rest of the trees still standing leaned towards the water, as if we were the spectators of a gigantic movement, but at the same time extremely slow.
I found myself lost in the depth of time, not understanding if the slope had taken this famous tree which had then been cut down by the man to free the path, or if it was the man who had made it fall and then laid it down in the Relief, slowly giving back to the Rhone and to the green spaces, the corpse of one of their damaged brother. "
