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Architectural Design V-IX: (GD T. Barrault / C. Pressacco)
Last Updated: 2026-06-03 00:07:21
Abstract
WALLNESS, through technical and cultural considerations, overturns the act of building and opens up a conversation. Insulation is now an integral part of the repertoire of architectural elements, while thermal engineering reveals unsuspected fields of construction. The quest for comfort in interior spaces calls into question the nature of the building envelope.
Objective
- Understand the thermal and hygroscopic behaviors of the lime-hemp material through the observation of its microscopic structures — following a scientific and documentary approach — and through hands-on manipulation at a 1:1 scale. - Renew constructive and theoretical culture in light of contemporary environmental challenges. - Explore matter — the visible — and air — the invisible — using various tools and across multiple scales (models, prototypes, drawings, photographs, imaging techniques, scientific glossary, etc.), while moving beyond conventional standards of technical representation. - Reinterpret a pre-existing structural archetype: the post-and-slab system. From Le Corbusier’s Dom-Ino to the Athenian Polykatoikia, this involves questioning its relevance today, its plasticity, and its thermal potential.
Content
WALLNESS expands the role of the wall, summoning up all its components and defining a new rationality. The issue of transparency is no longer limited to the visible, but extends to all the invisible chemical and physical phenomena passing through the wall. WALLNESS sees the solid as both a necessity and an unprecedented formal potential. As always, materials are at the heart of the revolution. Three phases structure the semester, organizing three lines of inquiry. Hereby, the studio establishes a balance between research and design, theory and practice, representation and experimentation. The first phase is dedicated to the discovery and exploration of hemp, in order to develop an understanding of its technical characteristics, as well as its physical and chemical properties. Students are invited to construct 1:1 artefacts, through which they will familiarize themselves with hemp not only in its practical application, but as a new language derived from the architectural use of an insulating material. Through the manipulation of the material, the students define the aesthetic of WALLNESS. The second, parallel phase involves identifying abandoned structures in Athens: the unfinished Polykatoikias. These simple concrete frames are viewed as objects awaiting a thermal envelope strategy. Their representation will embrace a form of abstraction, echoing the Dom-Ino skeleton conceived by Le Corbusier and engineer Max du Bois in 1914. As such, these existing structures will be treated as enigmatic figures suspended in time and space — open to new narratives, shaped by history, contemporary issues, and the future of Constructive Rationalism. The third phase builds on the research carried out in the previous two. It will result in project strategies where thermal performance, both as a constructive and theoretical concern, becomes a driving force in the design process. Comfort and energy consumption thus become key parameters shaping architectural form. Solidity, thickness, mass, and surface are redefined as core components of a tectonic language dedicated to insulation. All the while, the notion of air — inseparable from that of comfort — informs the conception as well as the representation of the project. All phases combined, the Polykatoikias are reimagined as climatic refuges — they became the new “thermal monuments” that symbolically and constructively assert a common architectural language: WALLNESS.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- BSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| exercise |
Architectural Design V-IX: Wallness - Towards new transparencies (GD T. Barrault/ C. Pressacco)
No teaching on October 20 and 21 (Seminar Week)
|
No time listed | 16 h weekly |