Shared Stage: How a Residential Center for People Living with Addiction Can Give Back to the Community

In Lausanne, individuals living with Substance Use Disorders, often in precarious situations, lack adequate, adapted care structures. Existing facilities are often insufficient and poorly integrated into their urban context. Too isolated or stigmatized, they struggle to balance protection and openness, care and inclusion. This project proposes a residential rehabilitation center in a repurposed warehouse in the Vallon district, a neighborhood already home to many social facilities. The goal is to create not just a place of recovery, but a space that connects with the surrounding community. To do so, the project expands an existing theatre, offering a better access to culture back to the neighborhood while giving residents access to artistic and technical activities. Shared spaces such as the kitchen (used by both the center and the theater café), rehearsal rooms, or creative workshops incites encounters between residents and the public. The building’s layout encourages movement and interaction, avoiding isolation in the living cell. Rooms are structured to preserve intimacy while relying on shared functions like bathrooms and activity rooms to promote social contact. The architecture becomes a support structure, not only for recovery, but for rebuilding ties with others.