SLIDE 3
- MEMBRANE. An odyssey in domestjc space. Workshop in Addis Abeba
- MEMBRANE. An odyssey in domestjc space. Workshop in Addis Abeba
. 4 . 5
The Climate, The House, and Us Yesterday, the Cop 21 in Paris. Tomorrow, the Cop 22 in Mar-
- rakech. These events and their multjplicatjon reveal increasing
awareness of the efgects of our lifestyle on the climate, and the imperatjve to take actjon. However, the making of our habitat is scarcely a part of the conversatjon. Why, when the sustainable relatjonship between the house and its environment is at the very origin of the act of constructjon? The technologies that have so far accompanied our persistent impact on the environment have blurred the immediacy of our relatjonship to climate. Throughout the world, we have progres- sively abandoned traditjonal know-how in favour of standard- ized systems: air conditjoning, heatjng, insulatjon, double glaz- ing, mechanical ventjlatjon... Within this research cycle, we hypothesise that through revis- itjng the knowledge contained in the vernacular architectures that have constjtuted the specifjc vocabulary and identjty of each culture, it is possible to respond to today’s environmental issues in a resolutely contemporary way. Reconnectjng with tjme Our houses have lefu the care of their solidity to technicity, tak- ing away the need for diligent human maintenance. Yet we fjnd that through the care of inhabitants, masons, gardeners, paint- ers with in the household, people get closer to their home, their neighbors, and their community, in such a way that the experi- ence of inhabitatjon, and the shared practjce of maintaining the house, are inextricably bound together. This combined space, where - and through which - household and society are bound together, translates into the concept
- f ‘fragile’ housing: seasonal paintjng of the house, renewed
render, and organic expansion, all necessitate the presence of watchful, careful individual, of a ‘caretaker of space’. It is this embraced fragility, this fmexibility, that we wish to explore, through the possibilitjes that it ofgers for the construc- tjon of a collectjve imaginary, and in its relatjonship to tjme and environment.
- MEMBRANE. An odyssey in domestjc space
Housing spatjally defjnes its own limits, generatjng domestjc protectjon by defjning an ‘outside’. Qualifying the relatjonship between the inside and the outside of the house means under- standing its antagonistjc nature: impermeable yet porous. That limit is a membrane that separates two ‘milieu’, two envi- ronments, two climates. The measure in which we separate ourselves from the outside defjnes the landscape of our citjes. How do we qualify this tran- sitjon? The nature of the membrane, limit of a space yet space “closed within itself and infjnitely open” (Edouard al-Kharrat, Al-zamân al-akhâr, 1985), is the substance we want to study dur- ing this workshop cycle. In that in-between, lies the distance between two worlds, the intjmate, domestjc, private realm and the open, social, public realm: a fragile space where society is crystallized. Learning from four citjes In order to constjtute a coherent basis of refmexion, the work- shops will take place in a number of citjes of the African con- tjnent, representjng various climates. So far, the selected citjes are Algiers (Algeria), Bamako (Mali), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Cape Town (South Africa). In order to go beyond environmental prescriptjons, we choose to approach the climatjc questjon through a study of local domestjc architecture: understanding ancient practjces, the intelligence
- f traditjon, examining the evolutjon of constructjon and engi-
neering, while stjll investjng the domain of domestjc imaginaries. The work will study how, under various climates, people have inhabited that membrane, the way that limit thickens or slims down to defjne a climatjc in-between. This focus will be artjcu- lated by reinvestjng maintenance of the house in order to bring inhabitants and their habitat closer together. Broady, we will examine the relatjonship between the house and the outside world.
WORKSHOP N°1 : ADDIS ABABA
You are invited to take part in the fjrst workshop in the series
- MEMBRANE. An odyssey in domestjc space!
It will take place in Addis Ababa, hosted by the Ethiopian instjtute
- f Architecture, Building constructjon and City development (EIA-
BC). The instjtute will also provide the site for the constructjon of the workshop project, which will remain in place for one year. We will build a ‘hybrid’ pavilion that will unite exploratjons into a range of domestjc conditjons : where to sleep, where to cook, where to eat, where to live... The choice of program is not intended to dictate a form, but to serve as a laboratory. The constructjon process will also provide the opportunity for exploratjon and recombinatjon of materials and constructjon techniques inspired by the diverse vocabulary of Ethiopian vernacular architecture. The fjnished pavilion will functjon as a ‘composite house’ that may be used by the university’s students throughout the year, and provide the basis for further experimentatjons in domestjc space. The collaboratjon with the EiABC will take place in three phases. This call is an invitatjon to join Phase 3 of the process :
Phase 1 - 17-21 October 2016
Preparatory seminar of fjve days hosted by the EiABC (partjcipants: local teachers and students, guest internatjonal speakers).
Phase 2 - 24 October - 02 December 2016
Development of a design concept for the pavilion by EiABC students (partjcipants: local students)
Phase 3 - 05-16 December 2016
Pavilion constructjon
(partjcipants: open)
WHY THESE WORKSHOPS ?
