Drill on Design Amending SIA 112: Toward a Labour Centered Architecture

Capital generated by ongoing intense construction activities in Switzerland has reached unprecedented levels, through the extraction of labour on construction sites. Construction workers witness an ever increasing gap between design practices and construction realities, which inevitably results in a disconnection in the same “labour chain”. Current construction conditions are responsible for craft devaluation and deteriorating site conditions. Building on field research of the construction industry done during last semester’s theoretical statement, collected evidence—from those we met, interviewed, observed, and studied—reveals possibilities for design practices that center its process around site labour. This encompasses multiple variables from which new design principles can emerge: such as the mutualization of pipes, the reduction of building’s height or later maintenance work. The project deploys SIA Ordinance 112 as a transformative device for true collaboration and self determination. Using the under-construction Tilia Tower site in Malley as a case study, it proposes new approaches where functionality, assembly logic, and coordination become fundamental design components. What would architecture be if construction workers carried it out as a collaborative project, labour truly impacting our design choices? How would housing, if built according to these principles, look like?