As a result, building your own house has become largely inaccessible to the majority of people. That is why, in my projects, I try to question these norms. Some of them make sense, but I don’t think, for example, that architecture has to last forever. After fifty years, many buildings here in Geneva will be destroyed anyway because of the of the market pressure; or they will need to be rebuilt or redone because building norms have changed. In my opinion, this is the most wasteful way we can build. I am not saying it should never be done like this. But the urban fabric is constantly changing and we should be able to think of an architecture that is less wasteful, and not necessarily meant to last forever. That is why there is also a need to build a lighter, more temporary architecture. I have always looked with admiration at contemporary Japanese architecture. Some areas there are similar to Switzerland. They have a cold winter and a warm summer, but they have accepted that houses can be built with a shorter lifespan. That has really liberated single-family architecture in Japan. After all, when you look at the history of architecture, of non-pedigree architecture, it was often built in a temporary way but in an ecological, not in a wasteful way.”

In your architecture, you are always seeking how to contribute as much as possible but with minimal means. One way of doing that is to use cheap materials or to reuse materials that are at hand – for instance like old electricity posts and the turpentine timber of an old jetty in the Marramarra Shack in Australia. The result is that you use a lot of different materials, so much so that your work could be described as bricolage. What appeals to you about bricolage?

“Working with local materials or with whatever is available is ecological in terms of sourcing, but also more appropriate to the local climate. It is more sustainable in the long run. But I prefer to see it as an intuitive aspect, as assembling materials at hand for self-built new worlds. I always try to keep that playfulness in my architecture. The culture of my generation comes from the ‘banlieues’ and is critical of them. So I could never see myself as an architect building a suburb. For me, bricolage can be seen as the antithesis of the standardized modernist block. It also means that I treat all materials with equal care. In my view there is no hierarchy of materials.”

For the Horst Festival in Belgium, you helped build a pavilion for a dance party with architecture students. Was it your aim to create a community by building together with others?

“Absolutely. Building together is joyful and creates a community. One example that I had in mind is the concept of barn-raising in the Amish community. This means that the community comes together to build a new barn. They cook together, they eat together, and then they build huge barns at huge speed. So they have the power of community and enjoyment during a weekend building, something that would otherwise cost millions and take months to build by a professional company. It doesn’t mean there’s no specialization. Some people in the Amish community are good at nailing, others are good at preparing the wood, and someone else has done the plans beforehand. Being able to build like that as a community requires planning. It also requires architectural skills to make plans and to prepare and number the pieces. But it is still a communal art that I find very beautiful.

“The Horst event was the happiest moment for me when I saw people celebrating the space and celebrating life in the space by having a party and dancing all night. The idea is to create temporary moments of autonomous anarchy, moments of freedom in our lives. There is no hierarchy, no controlling power, no monetary exchange; it is people coming together, where things are fine, a tiny, temporary utopia. I really believe that we need to bring in this notion of utopia. We have to dream big, and rethink the way our society is organized, our production system. In my small architectural practice, I like to bring in utopian ideas and at the same time question the way we live.”