Project I: Atelier RRR - Petzet

From RRRRimini we return to Mendrisio and we are amazed: beautiful cars, villas, perfect infrastructure. There seems to be a constant construction boom. In the industrial zone between the railway and the highway, gold bars are cast and the fashion industry is dynamic. So much wealth in this small town, but also so much empty space and decay, but where is the life? The parties are private, the workers come from Italy and disappear in the evening in their buses and cars, and the many international guests remain captivated in the magical bubble of Foxtown and the Casino. Money, values, energy, knowledge, people, cultures, resources, waste, water, faeces, we want to follow these flows through Mendrisio. Where do they come from and where do they go? How can we redirect them, make them useful and fruitful? How can we apply our RRR principles of minimal intervention in this context? As always, we will work with the inventory of buildings and places ‒ discovering, exploring, reprogramming and re-evaluating them. Working in pairs, we will develop architectural solutions to the problems that become increasingly apparent as we walk through Mendri$io: follow the money!

The 3Rs of Reduce/Reuse/Recycle are a value system of avoidance, reuse and recovery that originated in waste treatment but should also be our guidance in the treatment of given urban situations. Studio RRR aims to create the most positive social impact on the city, with the least possible negative impact on the environment. We will adopt a working method that results in a positive attitude and integrative thinking towards everything that already exists and is present on the site. We will follow the law of the most minimal intervention and learn to apply the RRR strategies: perception, maintenance, behavior, renovation, reprogramming, conversion, infill, redesign, subtraction, addition, recycling and precycling. In two circular movements culminating in the midterm and final presentations we will search, program, implement, present and research, reprogram, reimplement and represent. We will survey the city and find sites that are neglected / underused / ignored. We will redesign what we have found and develop programs that connect and enrich the entire neighborhood. We will implement these programs in detail - planning the necessary adaptations, additions, or subtractions. We will show what and why we have changed. We will work on different scales - from urban to details, designing the hardware of buildings – and the software of uses and business models. If we do our work well, projects could be realized immediately, convincing owners, investors and the city of their necessity and feasibility. Our students will learn to become initiators, entrepreneurs, and developers.

In presence

• Table Reviews 
• Public Reviews 
• Online Reviews 
• External contributions

• Final public review
• Video, Graphic material, Models