Vestibules Trieste / Urban Legends - Studio Gay Menzel

Travelling to Trieste gave us the opportunity to discover and to discuss the plural languages of architecture. For this we made the selection of 15 vestibules stemming from different epochs of the city’s history. Vestibules accumulate a panoply of architectural elements in a relatively small space (doors, floors, walls, stairs, etc). Their different articulations tell us about the spirit of the time they were conceived in – their reoccurrence of the permanence of architectural principles.
We surveyed the vestibules on site and composed analytic drawings which are here on display. Furthermore we made short films  - subjective documentaries – as a sensorial survey of these spaces. What can be appropriated for a project today? Two conceptual model were built for each vestibule. They embody the potential of an architectural idea found in Trieste that can be transposed elsewhere. People and ideas move. These ideas are the nuclei for the design of small housings in Lausanne, which we will work on during the remaining weeks of the semester. In the summer semester we will then elaborate projects for Trieste. GayMenzel Studio’s approach perceives architectural intervention stemming from a site and a first desire, by defining its character in advance. We call it contextual imaginary.