Alternatives without Scale, without Limits

Two architectural firms, located in Zurich, offer us a remarkable discovery around traditional and innovative creations.

Rossetti + Wyss

The traveling exhibition “Massivholz - material, reduktion balance / solid wood - material, reduction, balance” presents recent projects which show an interpretation of the use of solid wood and which suggest simple alternative answers to complex contemporary questions.

Nathalie Rossetti and Mark Aurel Wyss study the qualities of traditional construction methods and transpose them into their work. They use solid wood in project specific applications and constructions as well as in combination with other materials. Their work explores the balance between construction and form, material and function as well as density and lightness.

DÜRIG AG

The Dürig AG agency presents a surprising piece of equipment, called "Vortex" playing with the rules of geometry. Built in Lausanne, this perfectly circular building is built around a 3-kilometer uphill “street”.

As a first step, the building accommodates the athletes of the Youth Olympic Games in 2020 before accommodating the students and academic guests. Almost 1,000 housing units are ordered along a street strip rising in the form of a helical ramp with a slope of 1%.

The residents take this route which turns out to be the element participating in the creation of a social unit. Nine floors (program for public use) unite along a concrete street, on which the wooden housing modules are placed like small houses, thus creating a living and moving city. This public street leads to a fitted roof with a view of Lake Geneva. The circular shape reinforces the “living together”, the ladder lets you breathe. The structural and public character of this ramp, which becomes a street, connects the town, campus and landscape.