Through this intervention, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion is transformed into a domestic space inspired by the winning project of the last edition of the Prize. A transformation that deepens the debate on housing and how the Bordeaux project becomes a model for the social and physical rehabilitation of the housing blocks of the modern movement and its surroundings.
An intervention aimed at and equally affecting the inhabitants, architects, urban planners, developers, heritage conservators and politicians.
Conceptual description of the Intervention by Adamo Faiden Arquitectos
In the 1960s and 1970s, large-scale housing complexes were built all over the world as a bold solution to satisfy the need for housing. Five decades later they are largely considered as ideologically outdated, urbanistically failed, and ripe for demolition.
Against this backdrop Never Demolish claims that these projects can have a second life that’s better than their first, through sensible renovation – enlarging the spaces and improving living standards. The exhibition features the spectacular transformation of 530 dwellings across three high-rise buildings of the Cité du Grand Parc in Bordeaux, France designed by the architectural offices of Lacaton & Vassal, Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin as a potential model for the social and physical rehabilitation of the mass-housing estates of modernism.
Curated by Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Never Demolish is addressed to architects, urban planners, developers, heritage conservationists, and politicians alike. To help facilitate a discussion about the proposal in light of the current housing situation. The intervention communicates this transformation through a direct simulation of the spatial “types” of the project – the apartment interior and the newly added winter garden. A 10-metre-long wall displaying 1:1 scale images stands in the centre of the exhibition room. On one side of the wall, a selection of images that look into living rooms from the perspective of the winter garden are presented. On the other side, the view outside appears, as seen through the winter garden from the interior rooms.
Additional props such as thermal curtains, polycarbonate sliding doors and pieces of furniture help to convey the ambiences of the two spaces, whilst the images allow a visual connection to be maintained. Through this dialogic division of space the visitor is able to experience what happens in both the original and the newly added space, starting from the inside.
