An Educational Centre in Salez – Designing sustainability through simple interactions between users and architecture

Abstract

The article presents the case study of the Landwirtschaftliches Centre as an example of a building capable of promoting new modes of interaction between users and architecture through simple and analogical technologies. The paper aims to understand how a low-tech approach, based on prefabrication, local materials, and solutions without automation, can stimulate user awareness and responsibility. The study, conducted through site visits and interviews with users and the centre’s director, Markus Hobi, underlines how a ‘structural’ design approach can generate conscious and positive interactions between users and architecture. The paper’s originality lies in exploring the educational role of these interactions, which can offer a new perspective on architectural sustainability. Article info Received: 10/09/2024; Revised: 07/10/2024; Accepted: 09/10/2024

Keywords

• construction simplicity
• user-architecture interaction
• sustainability
• passive technologies
• pedagogical architecture