Architecture students rejuvenate two sites in the Greater Geneva area

© 2022 EPFL Alain Herzog, Prefabrication on the EPFL site First-year EPFL architecture students are reshaping Geneva's public spaces. All summer long, visitors can explore and interact with temporary installations at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum's Jardin des Nations and along Avenue des Grandes-Communes in Onex, which has been transformed into a dynamic pedestrian-oriented area. It's a springtime tradition, a long-standing rite of passage for architecture students at EPFL's Design Studio on the Conception of Space (ALICE), headed jointly by Dieter Dietz and Daniel Zamarbide. At the end of their first year, students take on real projects at existing sites. EPFL Alain Herzog, Structures that adorn the spaces of the International Museum of the Red Cross For the third year in a row, the projects are taking place in the Greater Geneva area, after previous years in Lausanne (2016), Zurich (2017), Brussels (2018), and Evian (2019). Students have been tasked with designing and building full-scale wooden structures that fit seamlessly into the sites they have been assigned. This initial, hands-on experience with a landscaping and architecture project is giving them a taste of the reality on the ground - which includes a necessary awareness of spaces and materials - as well as an opportunity to plan and implement a design from start to finish.