Socio Educational Workshops

Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini

SOCIO EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS

Fwg Architects Sarl

SURVEYOR
Rossier Sa

SUBSECRETARIO
Valeria Molina

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Elena Farini, Christophe Widerski

ACOUSTIC ENGINEERING
Acustica Sar

CIVIL ENGINEERING
Küng Et Associés Sa

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Louis Richard Ingénieurs Conseil Sa

SOIL SCIENTIST
Basler & Hofmann Sa

BUILDING ENGINEERING
Estia Sa

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Besm Sa

FIRE PROTECTION
Richard Conseil & Associés Sa

MANUFACTURERS
Geberit, Sika, Actiu, Arper, Duravit, Flumroc, Glas Trösch, Glutz, Hay, Knauf, Kone, Miele, Raico, Regent, Schenker Storen, Zehnder, Dormakaba, Agrob Buchtal Gmbh, Agena Energie Soleil, Aumüller, +7

AREA
5147 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Etoy, Switzerland

CATEGORY
Workshop, Educational Architecture

Text description provided by architect.

Located in the heart of the small town of Étoy, this workshop restoration and expansion project responds to the need to propose new places of activity for people with mental and physical disabilities.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher
Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher

The building is also being rehabilitated to ensure its compliance in terms of fire safety, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, and energy efficiency.

The purpose of the project is to offer the l'Espérance Foundation a renovated and homogeneous living environment through careful and functional restoration.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher
Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher

This reality has led to choosing materials, volume, and architectural design in coherence with the aim of seeking continuity and unity with the constructed environment.

The ambition is, ultimately, to offer a harmonious constructed and landscaped context, with great communication in terms of accesses and paths, always keeping spatiality, light, and transparency of the spaces in the gardens and in nature in mind.

The building proposes a sustainable development approach and grey energy saving. 

Socio Educational Workshops
© Delphine Burtin
Socio Educational Workshops
© Delphine Burtin

Preserving the concrete structure of the existing building fully meets this objective and also reduces waste recycling and construction costs.

Through this project, skills are utilized for managing different programs in the same urban configuration, defining accessible mobility, managing all the flows present in a project, the operational and time complexity of several simultaneous locations, and implementing a participatory process with all the stakeholders involved.

The building is designed to offer high performance in environmentally-friendly terms in relation to construction and the flexibility of spaces to accommodate the remodeling.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher

The choice of materials minimizes the carbon footprint; the structural frame and its assembly allow the reversibility of the building, demonstrating that its end-of-life phase has been taken into account.

To meet the new needs, the original building has undergone transformations that range from elevating certain parts to replacing all of the façades and the roof.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Delphine Burtin
Socio Educational Workshops
© Delphine Burtin

The philosophy adopted for this project was to offer spaces free from all limitations, fitted out in the same way at a technical level (networks, heating, ventilation and electricity, removable partitions), and therefore easily reusable.

This system of "free-form spaces" responds to possible changes in the institutional project of this complex.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Delphine Burtin
Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher

From the beginning, the aim was not to attempt to invent solutions but to search for them in collaboration with the users who inhabit the space.

The workshops are part of an industrial architecture that is considered a heritage worth preserving with values to be respected.

Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher
Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher

More than closed and finished architecture, the workshops have been conceived as an open and adaptive system, ready to change and adapt according to particular or time-related circumstances. The spaces are thus easily interchangeable.


Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini
Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini
Socio Educational Workshops
© Thomas Jantscher
Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini
Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini


Socio Educational Workshops
Courtesy of Elena Farini
Socio Educational Workshops
Workshop Building Schedule


Socio Educational Workshops
Master Plan
Socio Educational Workshops
Ground Floor Plan
Socio Educational Workshops
Upper Floor Plan
Socio Educational Workshops
Fourth Floor Plan


Socio Educational Workshops
Section East-West
Socio Educational Workshops
Section North-South


Socio Educational Workshops
East Elevation
Socio Educational Workshops
West Elevation
Socio Educational Workshops
South Elevation
Socio Educational Workshops
North Elevation


Socio Educational Workshops
Construction Detail