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master thesis

Drill on Design Amending SIA 112: Toward a Labour Centered Architecture

Pichler, Carolina Thalia
•
Porteret, Lalie Flore Louison
2025

Capital generated by ongoing intense construction activities in Switzerland has reached unprecedented levels, through the extraction of labour on construction sites. Construction workers witness an ever increasing gap between design practices and construction realities, which inevitably results in a disconnection in the same “labour chain”. Current construction conditions are responsible for craft devaluation and deteriorating site conditions. Building on field research of the construction industry done during last semester’s theoretical statement, collected evidence—from those we met, interviewed, observed, and studied—reveals possibilities for design practices that center its process around site labour. This encompasses multiple variables from which new design principles can emerge: such as the mutualization of pipes, the reduction of building’s height or later maintenance work. The project deploys SIA Ordinance 112 as a transformative device for true collaboration and self determination. Using the under-construction Tilia Tower site in Malley as a case study, it proposes new approaches where functionality, assembly logic, and coordination become fundamental design components. What would architecture be if construction workers carried it out as a collaborative project, labour truly impacting our design choices? How would housing, if built according to these principles, look like?

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Type
master thesis
Author(s)
Pichler, Carolina Thalia
Porteret, Lalie Flore Louison
Advisors
Malterre-Barthes, Charlotte  orcid-logo
•
Nichols, Sarah  
•
Kao, Kathlyn
Date Issued

2025

Publisher

EPFL

Publisher place

Lausanne

Subjects

habitation

•

logement individuel

•

logement individuel groupé

•

habitat collectif

•

nouvelle construction

•

réhabilitation

•

rénovation, transformation

•

architecture, construction, technologie, génie civil

•

sociologie, sciences sociales

•

développement durable

•

chanvre

•

préfabriqué

•

ville

•

Prilly

•

Malley

•

Chemin du Viaduc 12

•

Suisse romande

•

Vaud

•

Suisse

•

Europe

Note

Cote: 2025.069

MEM.1/1 A5 vertical

Groupe de suivi: Malterre-Barthes, Charlotte (dir. pédagogique) ; Nichols, Sarah (prof.) ; Kao, Kathlyn (mentor·e) ; Patteeuw, Véronique (expert·e)

Professeur responsable de l'Enoncé: Malterre-Barthes, Charlotte (ENAC IA RIOT)

Enoncé théorique de master: The Pace of Space: Critical Reading of the Labour Process from the Swiss Construction Site

URL

Consultable sur demande à la Bibliothèque de l'EPFL / Offered in consultation at the EPFL Library

https://www.epfl.ch/campus/library/fr/domaines/architecture-urbanisme/
Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
RIOT  
ENAC-SAR  
Faculty
ENAC  
Section
AR-S  
Available on Infoscience
November 20, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/256062
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