Swiss Talks #2: A Return to Life
Video recording now online
Video recording now online
Swiss Talks #2: A Return to Life
Istituto Svizzero and Casabella Formazione propose a conversation between Catherine Gay Menzel and Maria Saiz on the theme of living spaces in the light of the social changes brought by the pandemic experience. The prerequisite for an improvement in the quality of life depends on a more conscious relationship with the surrounding environment, whether this is natural or artificial. The presentation of some emblematic projects of the respective studies and an exchange of views on the topic will be introduced by Maria Böhmer (Istituto Svizzero).
Catherine Gay Menzel (Architect ETHZ FAS SIA) runs the architectural office GayMenzel in collaboration with Götz Menzel in the Valais. She studied at the ETH Zurich, graduating in 1999, and gained her first professional experiences with Hans Kollhoff in Berlin, Leslie Gill in New York, Sabarchitekten in Basel and Herzog & de Meuron in Hamburg. Since 2018 she is Vice-president of the cantonal building commission of the Valais. She is since autumn 2020 visiting professor at the EPFL in Lausanne, teaching in the master program.
Maria Saiz studied architecture at the Polytechnic School in Madrid and she graduated in 2002. In 2003 she moved to Switzerland and became a professional associate of Vincent Rapin. In 2006, she was assistant to Jean-Paul Jaccaud at EPFL, and she co-founded the Rapin Saiz Architectes in 2010. She was assistant to Bakker Blanc at EPFL in 2012-2015, invited professor at HEAI Freiburg in 2016-2018, and invited professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2019.
Swiss Talks is a series of encounters dedicated to the orientations of contemporary architecture in Switzerland. For five years already, the Swiss Talks question the experimental nature of architecture, involving the three main Swiss architecture schools: EPFL, ETHZ, USI-Academy of Architecture.
A project by Istituto Svizzero and Casabella Formazione, curated by Federico Tranfa.
With the support of Laufen, Gruppo Mondadori, EPFL, ProViaggi Architettura.