The Agency of Less - Rethinking Existential Minimum / EAST
Event details
| Date | 24.03.2025 › 17.04.2025 |
| Category | Call for proposal |
| Event Language | English |
The Agency of Less
Rethinking the Existential Minimum
Throughout history, cities and societies worldwide have faced the challenge of providing affordable and livable housing while managing limited resources. Whether in architecture, urban planning or social structures, the pursuit has always been to maximise impact with minimal means.
The CIAM Congress on the Dwelling for the Existential Minimum in 1929 marked the first systematic and scientific study of the fundamental requirements for housing. It sought to answer the central question: What does a person need? The response was clearly articulated - light, air, space, and warmth. By exploring the smallest possible spatial footprint while maintaining architectural quality, the Congress laid an essential foundation for social justice and the provision of dignified housing for all.
Today, as social inequalities deepen, living costs escalate, and urban density intensifies, the discourse on the existential minimum has gained renewed relevance. However, rather than perceiving it as the lowest acceptable standard for dignified living, it can be understood as a productive force - one that drives the development of forward-thinking, resource-efficient, and adaptable architecture. As we rethink co-living and social models in an aging society, housing for the existential minimum should not be seen as a limitation, but as a framework for opportunity. It must go beyond the bare minimum, enabling well-proportioned, high-quality environments that support diverse ways of living.
Agency of Less is the theme under which the East Laboratory invites you to participate in the 2025/2026 PDM session. Together, we want to rethink the existential minimum in housing and discuss creative, future-oriented architectural concepts.
We welcome theoretical statements that examine how existing concepts can contribute to critical architectural debates and inspire new approaches to contemporary practice, using a broad spectrum of themes as a framework for analysis:
°Housing Experiments – Exploring Alternative Models of Living
°Self-Built Housing – Constructing and Settling as a Community
°Forms of Communal Living – Sharing as a Way Forward
°The Household as the Core of Living – Collective Service Houses and Distributed Productive Functions
°Minimal Spatial Concepts – From the Existential Minimum to Incremental Housing
°Flexible Housing Typologies –Transformable Spaces and Neutral, Freely Interpretable Rooms
We accept project proposals in the field of housing that foster inclusive and adaptable forms of living together, mindful of both a building’s lifecycle and the life transitions of its users. Additionally, we encourage students to develop projects that take a clear architectural stance and critically engage with contemporary issues.
Rethinking the Existential Minimum
Throughout history, cities and societies worldwide have faced the challenge of providing affordable and livable housing while managing limited resources. Whether in architecture, urban planning or social structures, the pursuit has always been to maximise impact with minimal means.
The CIAM Congress on the Dwelling for the Existential Minimum in 1929 marked the first systematic and scientific study of the fundamental requirements for housing. It sought to answer the central question: What does a person need? The response was clearly articulated - light, air, space, and warmth. By exploring the smallest possible spatial footprint while maintaining architectural quality, the Congress laid an essential foundation for social justice and the provision of dignified housing for all.
Today, as social inequalities deepen, living costs escalate, and urban density intensifies, the discourse on the existential minimum has gained renewed relevance. However, rather than perceiving it as the lowest acceptable standard for dignified living, it can be understood as a productive force - one that drives the development of forward-thinking, resource-efficient, and adaptable architecture. As we rethink co-living and social models in an aging society, housing for the existential minimum should not be seen as a limitation, but as a framework for opportunity. It must go beyond the bare minimum, enabling well-proportioned, high-quality environments that support diverse ways of living.
Agency of Less is the theme under which the East Laboratory invites you to participate in the 2025/2026 PDM session. Together, we want to rethink the existential minimum in housing and discuss creative, future-oriented architectural concepts.
We welcome theoretical statements that examine how existing concepts can contribute to critical architectural debates and inspire new approaches to contemporary practice, using a broad spectrum of themes as a framework for analysis:
°Housing Experiments – Exploring Alternative Models of Living
°Self-Built Housing – Constructing and Settling as a Community
°Forms of Communal Living – Sharing as a Way Forward
°The Household as the Core of Living – Collective Service Houses and Distributed Productive Functions
°Minimal Spatial Concepts – From the Existential Minimum to Incremental Housing
°Flexible Housing Typologies –Transformable Spaces and Neutral, Freely Interpretable Rooms
We accept project proposals in the field of housing that foster inclusive and adaptable forms of living together, mindful of both a building’s lifecycle and the life transitions of its users. Additionally, we encourage students to develop projects that take a clear architectural stance and critically engage with contemporary issues.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EAST - Laboratory of Elementary Architecture and Studies of Types Prof. Anja Fröhlich Clemens Waldhart
Contact
- We accept PDM project proposals in the field of housing that foster inclusive and adaptable forms of living together, mindful of both a building’s lifecycle and the life transitions of its users. Additionally, we encourage students to develop projects that take a clear architectural stance and critically engage with contemporary issues. anja.fröhlich@epfl.ch clemens.waldhart@epfl.ch