Reload. Rethinking procedures and architectural practices for a silent transition

The contemporary city is the city of the 20th century: data released by the Federal Statistical Office in autumn 2023 clearly show that 70% of Swiss buildings were constructed after 1946, two-thirds of them before 2000. Quantitatively impressive and qualitatively very heterogeneous, the building stock from the second half of the 20th century - our living environment - represents an enormous potential for responding to today's environmental and societal imperatives. The challenge is enormous. All the players (both institutional and in the field) recognise it as a major issue that needs to be tackled urgently. Over the last fifteen years, this has led to the introduction of proactive public programmes to encourage renovation, at all levels of government, to improve thermal performance and reduce CO2 emissions.

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the renovation of post-1945 buildings, the rate of renovation is still far from sufficient to achieve the objectives of the Swiss Confederation's 2050 Energy Strategy, despite considerable public and private investment. The results are not always convincing. Thermal standards disregard the specific constructional features of twentieth-century buildings: this inadequacy is a major point of concern that deserves to be addressed without delay, also in relation to the economic investments, which thus appear disproportionate. Architectural quality is also at stake, including from the point of view of user appropriation, and even the reception of recent heritage by society as a whole. The difficulty of identifying - at an early stage - the value of the buildings is often the main cause of delays and stumbling blocks in the project approval phase. The extensive and composite corpus of contemporary buildings is therefore a catalyst for the ins and outs of the debate on a society that aims to be both inclusive and sustainable. Should we prioritise the preservation of the living environment as a testament to Baukultur, or its radical transformation as a guarantee of a more ecological approach? Positions are crystallising against a backdrop of controversy. This is true of all Swiss cantons. It is causing major delays in the implementation of energy policy, and producing results that are in no way satisfactory in terms of the Baukultur, either in terms of the architectural qualities of the original buildings or after renovation.

Current renovation practice deserves to be taken into account without delay, with an eye that is both critical and forward-looking. The aim is to re-examine the dynamics of a complex process, that of renovation, which is unanimously recognised as crucial in terms of its objectives, but which has revealed its limitations in terms of operational approaches.

The aim of the research project is to identify and raise questions about the potential sources of these barriers to the renovation of post-1945 buildings - barriers that are both administrative and regulatory in nature, as well as eminently cultural. It proposes the implementation of a strategy that is above all responsible, a process adapted to contemporary buildings, using a methodology capable of striking the right balance between the unavoidable imperatives of saving resources and enhancing the value of Switzerland's Baukultur. This can only be achieved by radically questioning current practices, which all too often neglect the material characteristics of the built environment and, with them, its cultural values. Legislation and standards need to be adapted to go beyond rigid performance-based approaches. At the heart of the system, the Baukultur can and must provide the impetus for innovative and responsible practices, by integrating the values of the built environment upstream of the design stage. In this way, the project aims to support the construction of an ambitious and solid forward-looking vision, in tune with economic and societal variables that are already recognised as unavoidable. The aim is to put in place the means for a silent transition.