Exhibition about mobile housing Art / Architecture / Design
Experiment the habitat
Genthod/Geneva
OPEN HOUSE is an exhibition that showcases innovative and original forms of habitat through projects from the fields of art, architecture, design and humanitarian aid in the beautiful Parc Lullin in Genthod on the lakefront, 15 minutes from Geneva.
Throughout the summer, the exhibition allows visitors to discover 35 pavilions, mobile constructions, livable sculptures, tiny houses or spaces evoking the theme of habitat in all its forms.
Whether flexible, mobile or utopian, a habitat has a form and a function that responds to numerous criteria, needs, lifestyles or desires. OPEN HOUSE presents a wide spectrum of original objects to challenge our habits and prejudices and thus feed our imagination.
OPEN HOUSE is an event conceived and directed by Simon Lamunière, former curator of Art Unlimited in Basel and specialist in large-scale art in public space.
Parc Lullin, 2 rue du Village, 1294 Genthod
The exhibition is open in a reduced form with 8 works still on display.
Access is free
Address
Parc Lullin, 2 rue du Village, 1294 Genthod, from June 11 to August 28
Access by train (Léman express) stop at Creux-de-Genthod. 15 min from Geneva main station.
Opening hours and price
The exhibition is open in a reduced form with 8 works still on display.
Access is free
Session IV
Partial extension
Living
the habitat
1 May — 1 December 2023
With EPFL Alice, Freeform, Frida Escobedo, HEAD – Genève, Hepia, John Armleder, Lang/Baumann, Annexe
Ground Work
Annex
In 1958 in Zurich, the second national Schweizerische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit (SAFFA) or “Swiss Exhibition of Women’s Work” was mounted by several women’s groups. It aimed to raise awareness of the importance of women’s work and encourage their advancement. For the event, the Swiss architect Berta Rahm deployed the large easy-to-disassemble pavilion of the Milanese architect Carlo Pagani and designed a small annex. The latter, rediscovered in the spring of 2020, is one of the rare pieces that have come down to us from SAFFA 58 and the body of work by one of the first female architects in Switzerland.
For Open House, Annexe has created a brick floor that matches the same surface area as the original annex but in the shape of a circle that fits nicely into Lullin Park. The spaces are indicated by the differences in the bricks’ composition. During a workshop in May 2021, the participants measured off, dug, flattened, filled with gravel, leveled, and adjusted with sand the project site before finally setting the bricks firmly in place with packed earth. Ground Work recalls the foundation, the base – literally and figuratively – that is needed in any construction.
Ground Work
BECOMING LÉMAN
EPFL Laboratoire ALICE
ALICE is an architecture laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The laboratory has based its pedagogy on concrete practice in the form of “Houses”, a program in which students go through all the different phases of architecture.
Since 2018, the ALICE laboratory has embarked on a new educational project, BECOMING LEMAN, which aims to make Lake Geneva and its surroundings a laboratory where to collectively and globally rethink the relationship between human society and its environment. It is part of a local approach, but also of a regional and cross-border dialogue.
The project realized for Open House during a semester in 2021 took place at the Bains du Saugy and involved a pedestrian extension over the water, a large staircase down to the lake and mobile floating elements.
BECOMING LÉMAN
Manta
Freeform Tents
Tents have always been temporary shelters. They make it possible to organize military campaigns or respond to humanitarian emergencies, sheltering refugees, sometimes the homeless in our cities, or makeshift hospitals.
A young firm that first took shape in 2003 in South Africa, Freeform readily confesses that Bedouin tents woven from goat hair and used on the other side of the continent served as inspiration for the stretchable multipurpose tent of today. This reinvention of a centuries-old technology has proven an unmatched tool for our century of event planning.
The firm has developed a standard range that allows people to create spaces that cover from 20 m2 to 600 m2 by grouping a series of canvases as need be.
Manta
Système_01
Frida Escobedo
Frida Escobedo has endlessly crossed back and forth over the bridges between architecture, design, and art, changed scales and mediums, and dominated the simplicity of materials as much as the potential of the motif – all accomplished while remaining true to Mexican modernism.
The architect is especially interested in creating public cultural spaces that teach us how to live together and better manage the friction that arises from a life in common.
In the early stages of the circular constructions built in Lullin Park, she mentioned the archeological sites of Stonehenge, the tepees of the Great Plains Indians and the huts of lake-dwellers.
Coproduction Open House Geneva and 90_20
Système_01
24/7 Reloaded
HEAD-Genève, arts visuels, option Construction
19 students took inspiration from the particular configuration of a cultural and natural space of the park that has been “tamed” and shaped by its limits (roadway, wall, stair door), reappropriating a 16 m2 zone that is marked off on one side by the wall and the door, and on the other by three upright wood surfaces. This space is simultaneously an open-air “room”, a shelter, and an art space. Accessible from the road or the park, it is both integrated and independent. It questions the notion of housing and dwelling.
The construction of this shelter amounts to a concrete grappling with the question of materials and their provenance. For the sake of ecology, the students first turned their attention to the earth, specifically the clay with which to make the bricks.
24/7 Reloaded
HA(R)B(R)ITER
HEPIA, filière Paysage
The Landscape track of HEPIA (Haute école du paysage, d’ingénierie et d’architecture of Geneva/the Geneva School of Engineering, Architecture and Landscape) offers here an installation designed and executed by students in the Bachelor of Arts program; the piece was produced over the course of several workshops by a number of teams. After studying Lullin Park, the students focused on one cut tree still standing over 6 m high.
Working with the available materials and within the defined perimeter, the team designed a space for moving about on foot. Among these rearranged and interpreted elements, the students put in the ground several plants and a range of painted and molded elements, lending the whole a hybrid look. In mid-June of 2021, the snag became a ceramic piece produced by Geneva CFC ceramics students. The installation will evolve throughout the year.
HA(R)B(R)ITER
Sans titre
John Armleder
From the 1980s onwards, with the Furniture-Sculpture series, he focused on the reuse and juxtaposition of everyday objects, mixing readymades and paintings by integrating them into the exhibition space, which it self ultimately becomes the work, to be seen as a whole. The chair, itself a recurring theme in 20th-century art, is presented in this exhibition perched a top a tree. Like an outgrowth of the tree, the saddle is detached from its function and ironically shown to the visitor in a quintessence of anti-utilitarianism.
In 1985, John Armleder featured in the exhibition Promenades, curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg in the same park as today. With their agreement, Open House directly alludes to that exhibition, which is when the artist first showed his chairs placed high up in the trees.
Sans titre
UP #5
L/B, Lang/Baumann
The structure set up in the grass of the park seems to take the title Open House literally. It has the size and the minimalist lines of a house, or part of a building, on two levels. And it is wide open to the four winds. But it is uninhabitable because it leans lopsidedly due to the absence of one its supporting walls.
The pure form of this object seems to be in keeping with the L/B that has been the common signature of Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. Space and its aesthetic experience have always been part of their work.
UP #5
Session III
EXPANSION
Dreaming
the habitat
March 3 – 6, 2022
With Maurizio Cattelan & Philiipe Parreno, Ken Isaacs
Session II
FLEXIBILITY
MOVING
THE HABITAT
23 September — 3 October 2021
With Angela Luna, Ecocapsule, N55, Z-Triton and Mika Taanila
Lectures by Michel Agier, Fiona Meadows, Saskia Cousin, Carla Juaçaba, Aigars Lauzis, Les Garages
THE ECOCAPSULE LOCATED AT THE BAINS DES PAQUIS STAYS VISIBLE UNTIL APRIL 24, 2022
Maison de l’Architecture, Geneva
Soňa Pohlová et Tomáš Žáček (Nice & Wise Studio)
The Ecocapsule is a creation of Nice & Wise, an architectural and design studio based in Bratislava. Its eggshell design and the various integrated functionalities make it a self-sufficient tiny house. It offers the comfort of a hotel room for two people without the constraints of construction, and its relatively lightweight of 2 tonnes allows it to be transported anywhere.
Book your night in the Ecocapsule
Book your unique experience, 1 night in the Ecocapsule alone on the Bains des Paquis jetty, facing the Jet d’Eau, Geneva’s famous water fountain. The capsule is heated, has a bed for 2, a shower, toilet, small kitchen and working table
Original Swiss service can be ordered extra: fondue in the evening, breakfast with birchermüessli, sauna and massage
For 1-2 persons
Available for booking from September 20, 2021 to April 24, 2022
Online booking service will operate only from September 20th onwards
arthabitatcontemporain@gmail.com
Z-Triton
Aigars LAUZIS (Studio ZELTINI)
Zeltini is a design studio based in Smiltene in northern Latvia. Aigars LAUZIS founded it in 2018.
The Z-triton is conceived as a multi-purpose means of transport that combines a spare shelter, adapts to land travel, and has an amphibious option to navigate inland waters.
One of Zeltini’s objectives is to provide a practical, fun tool, and above all, one that minimises the environmental impact it may cause.
Their designs are ethical, innovative, and creative.
The Z-Triton is an amphibious vehicle combining a boat equipped with a motorised propeller and an electric bicycle. The interior space is designed for two people and, thanks to its modular equipment, allows for sleeping, eating, or sheltering in case of bad weather. The roof is equipped with solar panels to power the electrical system and a compartment for growing plants.
Z-Triton
The trench
Angela Luna
This jacket was created in 2016 by Angela Luna after she became aware of the extent of the social and humanitarian crisis.
She realised that donated clothing does not always correspond to local needs.
She proposes a thoughtful design for a humanitarian application to clothing with her creations, whose form follows function. The trench coats are one size fits all, contain pockets for storage, are waterproof and insulating, and can be converted into a tent for mobile living.
Through this hacking of the fashion industry, ADIFF is redistributing a trench coat/tent to a homeless person for every purchase on their website in a one-buy-one-give system. This initiative has already resulted in over a thousand tents and nearly $80,000 to its employees.
The trench
N55
Snail Shell System
N55 (Ion Sørvin)
The N55 group, co-founded in 1996 by Ion Sørvin and Ingvil Aarbakke, comprises several artists and designers.
The Snail Shell System, a temporary and modular mobile habitat, is developed with a focus on adaptation; it can be used as an emergency shelter, as a raft, or even as a stock of commodities.
The idea behind the Snail Shell System is based on the hypothetical, on the possibilities that this habitat can offer both in its function and mobility.
Indeed, the capsule can be moved on land as well as on sea; a paddle is provided for navigation.
The unit is modular to adapt to various situations.
Snail Shell System
Session I
Process
Building the habitat
9 May — 30 August 2021
Session I has brought together 1:1 scale research projects from academic and humanitarian institutions such as EPFL, ETHZ Zurich, HEAD – Geneva, HEPIA, IOM or UNHCR.
Genthod, Genève
Annik Wetter
BECOMING LÉMAN: GARDENS
EPFL / ALICE (SPATIAL DESIGN WORKSHOP)
The EPFL ALICE research laboratory develops projects with first-year architecture students. They study the “construction” stage through a temporary full-scale collective construction in the public space. Since 2018, ALICE has embarked on a new project: BECOMING LEMAN. It aims to make the Leman a laboratory to rethink collectively and globally the relationship between the human being and his environment. After crossing the lake to settle in Evian in 2019 near the Buvette de Jean Prouvé, ALICE will leave the Léman this year to invest the space of the Rhône all the way to the heart of the Geneva canton. The project will start at OPEN HOUSE with an installation on the Plage des Bains du Saugy.
ALICE team
D. Dietz, D. Zamarbide, T. Cheung, C. Fauvel, A. Clément, M. Pretolani, T. Abenia, M. Bondu, C. Labro, R. Legros, V. Maréchal, M. Treiber, U. Wegman, R. Karrer, M. Onifadé, M. Potterat, L. Aznavourian, E. Butty, L. Champaud, A. Collet, A. Gonzalez Rodriguez, M. Hölzl, C. Isoz, A. Lambert, A. Lekaj, E. Mazerand, D. Michoud, M. Reol, J. Thévoz, S. Carroz, J. Desalbres, J. Garcia-Bellido Ruiz, K. Karara, O. Kundert, Y. Landon, A. Lassus, F. Maes, V. Maillard, G. Martini, Z. Mustapha, M. Sommer, N. Wanner, J. Adu Darko, J. Asoanya, L. Baldy-Moulinier, J. Bron, A. Compagnon, F. Ducotterd, J. Favre, N. Goehry, N. Guillouzic, Y. Hajoubi, M. Käser, J. Lemmens, E. Lemoisson, E. Lorenzo, G. Lucas, A. Marin, M. Rakoczy, N. Reis, J. Rigby, J. Steyaert, A. Thierry-Nánási, C. Vaudaux, M. Alhadeff, M. Cazenave Cloutier, F. Chatelain, V. Crettex, L. Decalf, H. El Graoui, J. Elben, A. Farine, E. Fontanella, N. Gilot, B. Haefeli, M. Jacome Alban, M. Jelk, N. Lesoille, N. Mikael, L. Moeschler, A. Potapushin, G. Rivier, M. Sistek, A. Von Der Weid, S. Wegmüller, A. Bai, B. Cattaneo, A. Choné, L. Duyck, A. Essaoudi, P. Grandjean, C. Hugues, A. Kölbl, L. Mundinger, R. Pellin, L. Ramiqi, C. Rossillon, H. Znaidi, T. Antonelli, Z. Aymon, L. Blanc, T. Brütsch, D. Dam Wan, Q. Davel, V. Egger, S. Gal, F. Hammoud, S. Kaidi, L. Kempf, S. Kir, E. Kpuzi, A. Lihatchi, E. Ludwig, J. Nicod, C. Perron, C. Ponsar, J. Raugel, E. Rieder, N. Antonietti, B. Béboux, L. Boulnoix, F. Debrom Gebremedhin, J. Druey, S. Gaumet, N. Jeanfavre, T. Kublová, E. Renaudineau, V. Siragusa, C. Vinet, M. Barth, P. Castellón Arévalo, A. De Montgolfier, A. Ducos, N. Favre, A. Galantay, M. Gisiger, N. Guigues, R. Hansra Sartorius, V. Kleyr, H. Le Hir, Q. Leresche, A. Maerean, M. Mazotti, N. Milanovic, K. Mokssit, N. Mouine, K. Saunders-Nazareth, P. Schaffner, G. Treyer, T. Walther, M. Blanc, L. Castella, N. Clavien, R. Cleusix, A. Gigon, V. Hasler, A. Hoti, V. Huehn, M. Ito, S. Khashan, A. Lüthy, L. Orakwe, Y. Sebastian, A. Ujupi, D. Weber, A. Williams Roffe, L. Burion, S. Ciompi, P. Crisinel, E. Friedli, L. Genecand, D. Go, E. Ilieva, C. Kalmus, A. Magnaguémabé Ongbakelak, M. Mocaër, D. Pereira Correia
BECOMING LÉMAN: GARDENS
Annik Wetter
ARCHITECTURAL DEGROWTH OR THE RENUNCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL WASTE
RESEARCH PROJECT MAS ETH DFAB DESIGN & FABRICATION
For the Gramazio Kohler Research Group at ETH Zürich, the processes involved in digital architecture influence both the conception of the design and its practical implementation.
Recycling concrete, recycling building modules that have no place in another building, rather than constructing a temporary pavilion, is their proposal for an “open house,” built in different phases from concrete scraps. With their particular structure and texture due to the method of creation by 3D printing, these objects will be the visual clues of an imaginary but still present and evolving space that the public will discover throughout the summer.
Team
Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich. Dr. Fabio Gramazio, Dr. Matthias Kohler, Sarah Schneider, Alessandra Gabaglio
ARCHITECTURAL DEGROWTH OR THE RENUNCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL WASTE
Annik Wetter
The green door project – 24/7 space
HEAD STUDENTS – GENEVA
The 16 students in Visual Arts, Construction option, of the HEAD – Geneva have imagined an artistic installation in the southern part of the Parc Lullin. The space 24/7 is located at the frontier, between the traffic of Route Suisse and the calm of the lake. The project plays with this duality by proposing a “room” accessible from the outside of the OPEN HOUSE exhibition, in which different installations and activities will occur. The students will manage the program of this “artist-run space.”
Professors : Katharina Hohmann and Vincent Kohler
Students : Melina Oria Alhadeff, Emma Berger-Pierre, Antoine Bürcher, Rafael Cunha Da Silva, Ana Durán, Claire Guignet, Louis Karim Kagny, Gian Losinger, Marie Lucas, Laura Matsuzaki, Lou Revel, Sara Rottenwöhrer, Jessie Schaer, Alex Sobral, Sibylle Volken, Elsa Wagnières, Lorenz Wernli, Mel Wieland and Elisa Wyss.
Special thanks to Isabelle Schnederle (CERCCO, HEAD-Genève) and Roland Freymond (Les Deux Rivières)
The green door project – 24/7 space
Annik Wetter
REFUGE TONNEAU 21. A TRIBUTE
HEAD-GENEVA
When Charlotte Perriand designed the REFUGE TONNEAU in 1938 with Pierre Jeanneret, they imagined a mobile shelter that would accommodate up to eight people for short periods in a comfortable but small environment. Eighty-two years later, twelve students from the Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD – Geneva imagined variations for its interior. The projects ranged from a spaceship cabin to a family shelter to hosting a chamber orchestra. Pierre Jeanneret, who worked with Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier for many years, was a former student of the HEAD – Geneva. The School of Fine Arts, where he trained between 1913 and 1921, became the HEAD.
Team
Project leader : Simon Husslein
Assistant : Damien Greder, Sven Högger
Head of Department: Javier Fernandez Contreras
Assistant: Valentina de Luigi
CAO Assistance : Abeyi Endrias
Students in Interior Architecture : Annika Resin, Aurélie Chêne, Camille Némethy, Caroline Savary, Élise Chauvigné, Gaïane Legendre, Julie Reeb, Juliette Colomb, Karen Vidal, Krenare Krasniqi, Maria Clara Castioni, Melissa Ferrara
REFUGE TONNEAU 21. A TRIBUTE
Annik Wetter
h A (R) B (R) i t E r
HEPIA, LANDSCAPE DEPARTMENT
An erected skittle, as a totem in the forest. It also serves as a foundation. At the top, a “precious object,” like a relic, sacralizes the intermediate and specific regeneration phase. A new life for a new inhabitant. This trunk, left in place by the forest wardens, links the earth and the sky. It is the leading network that receives, feeds, and redistributes the possibilities of life, the possibilities of living. The ground, the roots, the trunk, and finally, the branches are all places to live. A succession of networks. Living in a landscape: occupying a space for a defined period of time. Here, inhabiting becomes a life cycle: birth (construction), growth and development (evolution), disappearance, and regeneration—a realization of the students of the Bachelor’s degree in Landscape.
Team
Teacher: Christophe Ponceau
Assistant: Molly Fiero
The students:
Design: Estelle Aguado, Irina Benozene Ahmed, Amaury Carlier, Luna Florey, Valentine Fourchon, Nina Giorgi, Marie-Amélie Janin, Aloïs Jolliet, Adnan Kanj, Benoit Lagarde, Simon Loiseleur, Loïs Morel, Sindy Pisteur, Sébastien Rivas, Aurélien Sapin, Luna Valls-Haenni, Léa Tièche, Klara Zaugg
Montage: Marlène Argaud, Estelle Coulet, Valentine Fourchon, Audrey Houver, Marie Amélie Janin, Aloïs Jolliet, Valentin Lièvre, Chloé Perez, Nicolas Pineau-Triguel, Sindy Pisteur, Sébastien Rivas, Luna Valls-Haenni
Ceramics: CFP Arts Geneva, supervised by Charlotte Nordin/ Students: Maiwenn Cambi, Maria Ecaterina Cebotar, Esteban Chanez, Alexander Cipriano, Bahia Frily, Vatsala Haering, Adiela Kiwirra, Anja Ripoll.
h A (R) B (R) i t E r
Annik Wetter
GROUND WORK
ANNEXE (CHIAVI, FUGLISTER, PERKINS & UZOR)
The pavilion of the architect Berta Rahm, built for the 1958 SAFFA exhibition, was rediscovered in spring 2020 after a long period of “oblivion”. A rescue campaign has been launched, as it is one of the few remaining pieces from the SAFFA 58 exhibition and from the body of work of one of Switzerland’s first female architects. An association was founded under the name of ProSaffa58-Pavilion with the aim of saving and rebuilding the structure permanently in Zurich. The ANNEX project, which is part of OPEN HOUSE, is conceived as a ” coulisse ” in parallel to the overall Pro-Saffa58-Pavillon project. Its construction in two stages will allow for numerous social and cultural exchanges. Once the floor is built, it will receive further additions in September 2021 and will remain until the end of summer 2022
ANNEX is curated by Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Fülgister, Amy Perkins and Myriam Uzor in collaboration with the association ProSAFFA58-Pavillon.
Workshop participants: Josephine Eigner, Lea Götschi, Jasper Blind, Nora Zeller, Nicolas Wittig, Julia Tanner, Alexander Schmid, Martin Riewer, Nikola Nikolic, Claire Logoz, Axelle Stiefel, Sara . Stefan Breit, Corinne Spielmann, Jens Knöpfel, Ella Eßlinger, Leslie Majer, Crisost Koch, Jeremy Waterfield, Sofia Gloor, Juliette Martin, Shen He, Blanka Major, Friederike Merkel, Simona Mele, Martina Hügli, Sophia Garner, Linda Sjøqvist, Olga Cobuscean, Emanuel Pulfer, Luisa Overath, Severin Jann and Maarten van de Laar
GROUND WORK
Annik Wetter
Shelter Projects / Humanitarian shelters: supporting self-help with limited resources
Sheltreprojects.org
After a conflict or disaster, people want to create their own shelter and recover. This is only possible when they have access to land. The area outlined in this exhibition is more than most families displaced by conflict or natural disaster can afford to live on.
In 2019, the equivalent of about 20 times the population of Switzerland was affected by conflict and disaster. Of these, 40 million people needed shelter. Although humanitarian agencies and governments are helping many people, the first step is to define a space for them to build a shelter and start rebuilding their lives.
Shelter Projects / Humanitarian shelters: supporting self-help with limited resources
Annik Wetter
Refugee Housing Unit (RHU)
UNHCR
The Refugee Housing Unit (RHU) is an innovative housing solution developed through a collaboration between Better Shelter and UNHCR, with the support of the IKEA Foundation. The partnership was created to create a safe and dignified shelter for refugee and displaced populations. The RHU was developed after various tests in the laboratory and on the ground, in different climatic conditions, and after consultations with universities and refugee communities. Since then, more than 60,000 units have been deployed in more than 50 UNHCR centers worldwide. Feedback from the people affected has been highly positive, highlighting the role of the RHU in improving their lives.
Installed by Anja Pirjevec and Ammar Al Mahdawi, with their team
