ROMAIN IFF - Architecture Portfolio - EPFL + ETSAB

Romain Iff Architectural Portfolio

Selected Work 2016-2019

CONTENT

Selected Work | 2016-2019 EPFL | ETSAB

001_ THE REEDS

Architectural infrastructure | BA2 Atelier Alice | EPFL

002_ CLIFFHANGER

Inhabiting the mountain | BA3 SUBLAB | EPFL

003_ LEVIATHAN

Urban farm & market | BA4 SUBLAB | EPFL

004_ CIUTADELLA

Housing and social complex | BA5 Habitatge i Ciutat | ETSAB

005_ FIRE

Swiss chalet survey | BA4 Prof. Nicolas Bragheri | EPFL

006_ AALTO

Housing analysis & redrawing | BA5 Prof. Jaime Ferrer | ETSAB

THE REEDS architectural infrastructure Professor: Dieter Dietz Assistant: Emma Letizia Jones Date: BA2 - Spring 2017 | EPFL Studio project

001

House II is a balloon-frame structure hosting 12 ­projects designed and built in Zurich by all the 12 first-year st ­ udios at EPFL. It features all steps of an architectural project, from the competition phase up to the ten day workshop to mount it, including prefabrication, transportation and ­calculation of material costs. House II is a real collective experience managed by almost 200 students. The Reeds, a design by Brigitte ­Eichenberger and I, was ­selected and built by our studio ­composed of twelve ­students.

Tall ­kinetic timber reeds spread out across the ground of House II, ­embracing and enveloping the c­ olliding flows of ­visitors arriving from connecting points around the site.

Rooted in the floor, but free in the air, they bend, sway and tap in the wind. They ­gently give way to ­bodily ­pressure, ­offering a playful ­experience. D ­ ensely packed in some areas while sparse in others, they begin to ­overlap as visitors trace out paths between them, framing new a­ pproaches and ­perspectives on House II and its ­surrounding t­ erritory.

In contrast to the busy site, the reeds ­envelop a space of ­intimacy and calmness that ­nonetheless always remains ­visually connected with the vibrant city around.

CLIFFHANGER inhabiting the mountain Professor: Dominique Perrault Assistants: R. Nguyen, J. Fernández Date: BA3 - Fall 2017 | EPFL With Antoine Casile & Pierrot Lankry

002

This project was realized in the frame of the SUBLAB, a laboratory at EPFL which focuses on the alternative of subterranean architecture. In a location of our choosing in Switzerland, free of any architectural construction, we were to implant a volume of 100’000 cubic meters ­entirely or partially underground. At the beginning of the exercise, the programm of the building is not yet sp ­ ecified. It will be ­defined later during the development of the ­project ­following the volumetric response to the site and its needs.

In Oeschinensee, a tall cliff overlooks a lake. In the ­manner of Fontana, its rock is swiftly cut, opening a new d ­ imension in the site. A tower hosting a hotel is d ­ eveloped inside the dug rock, within the mountain. One face sticks out of the gash, forming an artificial ridge that dialogues with the flank of the slit, its natural mirror. The suites of the hotel are located at the edge of the gash, both in and out of the cliff, ­providing the rooms with n ­ atural light and a g ­ orgeous view over the site. ­Fully built ­inside the m ­ ountain, the ­public­ functions ­ ­ develop v­ertically on all l­evels of the tower.

By ­taking full advantage of the ­latter’s height, it a­ llows the creation of a multitude of ­atmospheres ­within each ­function, thus satisfying all v­ isitors. The tower is d ­ esigned to provide a sensible scale to the o ­ verwhelming size of the mountain. By ­integrating itself ­smoothly in the site, it looks to serve the l­andscape rather than damaging it.

LOBBY

GARDEN

FITNESS

POOL

SPA

LIBRARY

RESTAURANT

DISCO

CINEMA

SERVICE

±00.00m +1786.00m

-12.00m +1774.00m

-24.00m +1762.00m

-36.00m +1750m

-52.00m +1734.00m

-64.00m +1722.00m

-70.00m -1706.00m

-82.00.00m -1694.00m

-98.00m +1678m

-110.00m +1666.00m

LEVIATHAN urban farm and market Professor: Dominique Perrault Assistants: R. Nguyen & J. Fernández Date: BA4 - Spring 2018 | EPFL With Antoine Casile & Pierrot Lankry

003

In response to the high population and extreme d ­ ensity of Seoul, the city is looking to innovative solutions for space occupation and farming. In r­esponse to these issues, the SUBLAB proposes to ­research the ­solutions that can ­offer underground a­ rchitecture intertwined with new farming technologies. As such, the exercise is to imagine an urban farm under the Sejong-Daero boulevard that links the city hall to the imperial palace.

Through a rift in the street, a new world opens up. Hands in hands, a ­production area, a market, a shopping center and ­offices form a new urban farm for the city. 21 a­ butments hold a void that hosts two ­diagonals formed by platforms reaching from the North and South entrances. They ­ ­support the public market, and enventually meet in a place withdrawn from the crowded and busy streets where the ­professional market is located. Underneath the platforms, we find the hydroponic farm which is directly connected to the markets. Through the rift, the rain is ­allowed to trickle down all the way to the sublevel water tank which is part of a cycle production between a fish farm and the h ­ ydroponic farm, forming an aquaponic s­ ystem in a symbiotic ­ environment. In this project, architecture is ­experienced from above, from ­under, and within.

CIUTADELLA housing and social complex Professor: Xavier Ros Date: BA5 - Fall 2018 | ETSAB With Niklas Lenz

004

The exercise is to project a multifunctional building on half a block of the Ensanche in Barcelona, next to the Ciutadella park and the Pompeu Fabra university. It ­ must host ­ classrooms, auditoriums, labs, a gym, and a ­polyvalent room as well as both shared and individual apartments. The ­building must develop its own strategy for the ­different programs and the organization between them.

The project is imagined following a strict grid that ­encompasses courtyards in order to obtain good ­lighting and aeration all around, as well as mutliple o ­ utdoor areas where social encounters can take place. The ­ public ­functions are set on the groundfloor for easy ­access to and from the surroundings of the complex. On the first floor, we find the shared appartments and some ­private ­apartments. The i­ndividual rooms in the shared ­appartments are highly connected between them, ­forming eight large coliving spaces where social ­interactions are encouraged. Each one of these spaces has access to a city garden where plants can be grown for the ­community.

The last floor hosts more private appartments around the vertical ­circulation cores. The project looks to offer an optimal quality of ­living to all its i­nhabitants. Its low ­density results in a very open ­building which contrasts with the ­typical stuffed ­apparments ­buildings found in the ­Ensanche.

FIRE swiss chalet survey Professor: Nicolas Braghieri Date: BA4 - Spring 2018 | EPFL Group survey

005

With a team of six students, we braved the snow, and set to do a full survey of a ­19th-Century ­chalet in the Swiss Alps over two days. The purpose of the exercise is to then draw the plans, elevations and sections of the c­ halet, to offer them to the town’s archives. ­Alongside the drawings, we built a ­section of the chalet at scale 1:50, with an e ­ mphasis on the t­ raditionnal wood ­structure.

This exercise taught us a lot, from ­working on a ­full-scale ­survey and l­earning about swiss t­raditional ­construction methods, to graphic ­representation and ­model-building at a scale that allows an e ­ mphasis on the details and ­materialty of the c­ onstruction as well as the effects of time on the building.

AALTO housing analysis and redrawing Professor: Jaime Ferrer Date: BA5 - Fall 2018 | ETSAB With Carolina Contreras

006

As part of an elective class on the nordic masters of the ­twentieth-century, we were to do a study and redrawing of a project built by one of these masters.

We chose to work on the apartment buildings Alvar Aalto built for the employees of the National Pensions I­ nstitution in Munkkiniemi, Finland. This project is ­representative of Aalto’s work as it shows a special importance towards the connection between the buildings in order to create a complex with a strong social character. The relationship between the inside and outside, and his effort to blur the lines between the two is another issue close to ­Aalto’s heart. This study has been inspiring and a guidance in the development of my own housing project which took place during the same semester.

Romain Iff Rue de Plaisance 35, 2300 La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland +34 684 223 158 romain@i2f.ch

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