Model displaying the site of all the students' projects in the Trient landscape
The project was part of the masters course “A very connected house in a wild environment”, autumn 2010, organized by assistant professor Neven Fuchs-Mikac. The course is part of the course series ”The means of architectural production”, which each semester engages high-profiled or international practicioners as guest professors. Autumn 2010, Philipe Rahm, architect EPFL/FAS, joined the course.
The "forgotten" village
When planning the course, Philipe Rahm brought the students’ attention to the Swiss village of Trient, which do not only inhabit a beautiful landscape, but also because of the fact that it has hardly been transformed in the 20th century. In the 19th century, its proximity to the Mont Blanc made it one of the first tourist sites, particularly for English tourists.
However, this first tourism was not continued into the 20th century as was the case with many other Alp villages, that were transformed into modern ski resorts. ”The reasons for this are many, explains Rahm, but the most important is the steep mountain slopes of the valley which makes it very difficult to ski”. ”Trient is a village that has escaped from the traditional tourist urbanization until today, and therefore gives us a great chance and a perfect opportunity to imagine a different modern development of a small mountain village than the traditional development in the 20th century”.
Questions of tomorrow
So how could a small village with a pre-modern urban form be imagined today? Which future could be imagined for Trient? Which activities and which architectural forms could be built in Trient in the era of globalization, Internet and sustainable development? Could we imagine that Trient became a model of a new type of mountain urbanization today that would avoid the errors of the 20th century?
These are the questions Rahm presented to the AHO students, making it up to them to invent possible activities, to imagine the economy and the interest to place it here, in the altitude, in the middle of the mountains in a global world. As part of the course, the students visited Trient and got to discover the architecture of its region. After five months of project work, they each presented a project, ranging from a restaurant or a place of retreat, to the most unexpected things like a call center or a bank for conservation of art.
Exhibition in Trient
The 32 students' projects, alongside a large model displaying all the projects in the Trient valley landscape, will be on display at La Salle Communale de Trient, Valais from 4 - 27 February 2011.
The official opening is Febuary 4th at 6 pm. Present at the vernissage will be la présidente Commune de Trient Mme Aloïse Balzan, Phillipe Rahm and Neven Fuchs-Mikac.
The exhibition is curated by assistant professor Neven Fuchs-Mikac with the help of students Elisabeth Berntsen, Ingunn Nordlie og Saulius Bulavas.
Some of the projects in the exhibition:
Bob learning center by Iver Berg Blomsøy
UV degradation lab by Kristian Magnus S. Drogseth
Single family farm by Jørn Are V. Berge