(1:1) Student Competition on Sustainable Architecture

THE SUBVERSIVE COTTAGE

 

"I think that architecture can and does produce positive effects whenever the liberating intentions of the architect coincide with the real actions of people exercising their own freedom." Michel Foucault.

The architect as researcher, attentive to the needs and aspirations of our changing society. The architect as a catalyst of change, with and for the people. These are the aspects of the role of the architect that the 4th session of the Gaudi Competition, now [1:1], is seeking to highlight with its new theme.

In Europe, adapting one's habitat to one's needs has become more or less impossible. How does one build "an extra room"? The freedom to do has disappeared below the weight of regulations and "permanent" building is more and more expensive. But so many people dream of having an extra room as a means of living a little better. Easy to build, easy to take down. For the student seeking autonomy, the young architect working from home, the pensioner looking after his succulent plants. For neighbours who want to share an aperitif. For a neighbourhood that dreams of having a common space.

 

And what if being an architect meant granting the freedom to build? To local people, to neighbourhoods, to politicians? The [1:1] competition 2013-2014 asks students to find light and economical solutions which will enable people to build "an extra room". Starting with a real location, students will work with residents in order to identify their needs and come up with simple and unbureaucratic solutions based on additional volumes realisable in kit-form. These participative interventions can be made to private or collective habitat – pieces of “urban acupuncture” which are small and light but designed precisely in line with the needs of "an extra room": a room for a family member, a garage for the new Steve Jobs, a summer boutique for the neighbourhood…

The participative process should continue from conception to construction. We are looking forward to innovative "kit-of-parts" projects - sheds, pavilions, extensions, subversive spaces which surprise us with their humanity and their radical design: liberty, simplicity, feasibility - and humour.