Summer Chantier

EPFL & Universita Catolica di Valparaiso

Summer Chantier was a project that started with the initiative of EPFL in Lausanne. They had a collaboration going on with the Catholic University of Valparaiso. Firstly, students from the three schools; Accademia di Architectura di Mendrisio, ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) and EPFL (L’École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) had a week long workshop in Lausanne where they analyzed Mies van der Rohe and the floating roof. Ideas about details in wood and how to convert ideas of Mies van der Rohe into wood construction was tested. Arriving in Valparaiso the Swiss students met with Chilean students analyzing the site and understanding their methods of construction and building. The site was in Ritoque, an hour away from Valparaiso, in a property called Ciudad Abierta owned by the founders of the Catholic University of Valparaiso architecture department. In the midst of the sand dunes facing the Pacific Ocean students had a lot of responsibility constructing a space to be used for the Wednesday gatherings of the school and for the guests coming to the Ciudad Abierta. Led by poetry, students built a “Pórtico de los Huéspedes”, a portico for the guests. Asplund’s hut was chosen as a reference to gather around a pitched roof. Thus one of the details tested in Lausanne was used to create a pitched roof with Asplund’s dimensions of 17 m to 10 m.