Project BSc2-I: Housing - Atelier Juaçaba

The studio proposes an immersion in the work of Lacaton Vassal’s residential and non-residential projects, understanding their reflections on economy and how it influences the studios design process, together with the aspects of thermal delight and thermal comfort that ground their inquiry.
The studio trip will begin in Mulhouse and include visits to the French gardens of Gilles Clément.
In the first semester each student will study a single-family residence in France, set in one of five different, distinct climatic zones: oceanic, altered oceanic, semi-continental, mountain and mediterranean. Due to varying factors such as landscape, latitude, prevailing winds, and air currents, the climate and temperature can vary significantly throughout these zones and define construction systems - building methods, shaping different ways of inhabiting a house and the surrounding landscape itself. 

Reflect on everyday seasonal living through the lens of a house; giving close attention to the specific conditions and opportunities of climate and landscape and their integral cycles at both macro and micro scales.
Understand the relationship of place, climate and material with construction principles and building techniques.
Experience, survey and research exemplary landscape, gardens and buildings.
Perform extensive scientific and anthropological contextual site research.
Self-develop the project thesis.

In presence

Weekly reviews with professor and assistants.
Focus on reciprocal design discussion and iterative project development.
Specific assignments supporting project work.  
Group and individual design project work.
Collective atelier project research and communication tasks. 
First person experience of landscapes, gardens and buildings.
Lectures and guest critics from a range of invited specialists both from within the architectural profession and external / complimentary to the design task.
Self-organisation, communication and agency are seen as important skills, as are autonomy and responsibility in the coordination of individual and collective participation in the atelier. 

Comprehension of design task and broader spectrum of atelier research.
Working processes and project development.
Writing, speaking, sketching, hand and computer drawing, physical models and image making.
Constant presence and evolution of project discussion through the semester. 
Final presentations and reviews.

• Yes - Both multi-day (x1) and single-day trips are envisaged. To be confirmed at Atelier Presentation in September., 12.06.26 - 12.06.26 (Compulsory)