Contextual Imaginary as Method
The lecture will address the origin of GayMenzel's approach to practice. Through transformation projects, a method has been developed based on architectural thinking, collaboration with local builders and, importantly, construction site experience. Typological transpositions and re-use of materials, colours or objects are inherent to this method, which developed into a teaching methodology called Contextual Imaginary, positioning interventions in continuity and equilibrium within existing conditions. Realized projects as well as student work will illustrate this process and relate it to a teaching methodology and to an empirical research strategy. The discussion will be opened on the relevance of a timeless architectural language drawing on a broad definition of transformation, capable of questioning chronology and hierarchy in temporalities and scales, while addressing the intertextuality of architecture.
Catherine Gay Menzel, architect ETHZ BSA SIA
Born in Zürich and raised in Valais, Catherine Gay Menzel completes her studies at ETHZ and graduates in 1999 with Prof. Andrea Deplazes. She joins Hans Kollhoff’s office in Berlin the same year, where she works on the construction of a building on Postdamer Platz, in the context of the Kritische Rekonstruktion. In 2003, she moves to New York and collaborates with Leslie Gill, while also developing an independent practice with Götz Menzel. Returning to Europe in 2005, she works in Basel with Dominique Salathé and François Fasnacht, before joining Herzog & de Meuron in Hamburg for the construction of the Elbphilharmonie. She moves back to Monthey in 2009 working with Roland Gay and co-founds GayMenzel with Götz Menzel in 2013.
She teaches a design studio at EPFL since 2020, with Götz Menzel since 2021. She also taught at the master level in the school of Ensa Paris-Est in the spring semester 2025 in collaboration with Tristan Chadney.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- Prof. Pier Vittorio Aureli
Contact
- Prof. Pier Vittorio Aureli