peculiar ways of living

If you landed on this page, it means I’m either looking for a professor to guide my énoncé théorique and later my PDM, or that I’m interested in an internship at your firm. Whatever brought you here, I hope this portfolio offers a glimpse into my academic and professional journey, as well as my ongoing exploration of housing, challenging conventional norms through the study of overlooked or unconventional traces of life.

This portfolio is a collection of work from my past five years of studying architecture in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

concours ems béthanie 2eme prix

FERRARI ARCHITECTES & ASSOCIES

The Béthanie institution is part of the dense and historic green belt of the Domaine de la Chablière. At the neighborhood scale, the Coteaux building, followed by the Terrasses, developed along the Avenue de la Vallombreuse, following the topography and preserving the site's natural landscape qualities. The geometric fragmentation of the new volume provides a scale appropriate to the surrounding built environment and adapts to the existing wooded strip to ensure its preservation. The resulting facades, both articulated and dynamic, engage in a dialogue with the relief-shaped volumetry.

LES TERRASSES The extension of the Terrasses building, through the creation of a surrounding crown, is based on a static concept emphasizing rationality, functionality, and durability. Each part of the construction is designed to ensure optimal structural stability while offering open and welcoming spaces. The guiding principle is to maintain control over the new structures by introducing new foundations and using existing load-bearing elements only when strictly necessary. The choice of traditional concrete construction was made due to the morphology of the proposed structure, which is not well suited to prefabrication, as well as the constraints imposed by the existing building.

COMPOSE RE-COMPOSE GENèVE

Guardelegui & Widmer EPFL studio

COINTRIN NEIGHBORHOOD in Geneva Development of a project in the suburban residential area of Geneva. The aim was to enable sustainable densification through efficient land use. The project was developed with an emphasis on reuse and the preservation of the surrounding buildings. It is an attempt to revalorize previously unused spaces that were once lost behind hedges and separation fences but are now transformed into generous gardens. These gardens gradually guide the transition from public space to shared space and eventually to private space.

By integrating social housing and local services, the project addresses the need for affordable housing and promotes social diversity. The layout also encourages interaction between residents and workers, fostering a vibrant and welcoming neighborhood.

The project creates accessible and landscaped gardens for both residents and workers from the ground-floor shops and services. These green spaces contribute to the quality of life and support local biodiversity.

The project uses a recycled metal structure sourced from the demolition of industrial sites, thereby reducing its carbon footprint and highlighting the value of durable materials.

concours La filature fribourg

Technology assembly, EPFL cursus

Constructive detail of a facade for la filature’s competition proposal in Fribourg.

The exercice was to analyse the competition proposal and propose an assembly for the façade while still respecting the architect’s project intentions.

biennale de venise 2023

Ayoub & Lacaille, EPFL studio

→ Labooratory of the future exhibition

Research work about nomad lifestyle in switzerland. To collect as much information and testimony about this lifestyle we went along multiple itineraries to collect family stories around the switzerland’s territory. The goal was to understand their revendications to the governement and learn about the steps of finding a living space. Most of the given areas had sometimes no access to water or electricity.

Most of The planifications made by architects were not taking in consideration the basic needs of these communities

Because of the barrier

between these tribes

and the contemporary

society, most of this history

and knowledge is unknown to the public.

Pursued the work on nomadism with a seven days trip in the saharian desert in Tunisia starting from the city Matmata.

The goal was also to collect informations on a native way of living. We were guided by a local archeologist to who we promised in exchange drawings of ruins, mausoleums, tents and other indigenous habitat related to nomad’s history.

Because of the current environmental crisis

and government pressure,

it is becoming harder to

maintain such lifestyle and a lot of these families are rapidly

settling down. This peculiar way of living, wich actually is at the origin of what we know now,

is in extinction.

Globally it is important to protect ancestral knowledge. The ancestors of these communities initiated most of the region culture and practices and most of these tribes live a sustainable and fair lifestyle.

Nomadic communities typically live in a rural or remote areas where they can move their herds of livestock in search of grazing land and water.

Among these communities there is : The Sami people of Northern Scandinavia, The Bakhtiari people across the Zagros mountain, The Tuareg people in the Sahara desert and the mongolian nomads living in the gobi desert.

These communities are facing government pressure and changing environmental conditions wich force them to rapidly settle down into a more common lifestyle. The disappearing of this lifestyle takes with it the cultural treasure it represents. That is why we decided to turn our project toward the preservation of this heritage.

Due to the rapid change of our society the priorities have changed. And sedentary people are not the only ones concerned.

Nomad communties do not only gather around sources such as water but also around a brand new game changing resource for humanity: Oil.

To counter the idea of a centralized world exhibition we decentralized our exhibition in multiple sites around the globe. All sites are characterized by their similar ground pumping typology: Gas stations and Wells.

Those sites are a common resource for nomad communities and sedentary people. Wich makes it the perfect gathering point.

To best save the nomadic heritage we focused our project toward the recording and broadcasting of nomadic oral heritage, from throat singing to traditional music and oral storytelling.