LAPA – Laboratoire de la production d’architecture (EPFL)
The Laboratoire de la production d’architecture (lapa) was founded in 2005 by Professor Harry Gugger as a research and design laboratory within the school of architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The members of the team are Ralph Blättler (Blättler Dafflon, Zurich); Thomas Bregman (architect, Lausanne), Simon Chessex (Lacoix-Chessex, Geneva); Russell Loveridge (architect and researcher, Zurich), Pascale Luck (Lausanne), Antoine Robert-Grandpierre (localarchitecture, Lausanne) and Henriette Spoerl (architect, Lausanne).
As the name indicates, this is a laboratory devoted to the study and research of creating architecture as well as a place where architecture is produced. The term ‘production’ underscores our view of our built environment as an intellectual, crafted, machine-made and artistic product. By “architecture,” we imply the entire life cycle of a project: from development, planning and construction to the long-term use and existence of the building. This all-inclusive approach is also rendered in the word ‘production,’ since it designates both the creation of an intellectual commodity and the manufacturing of the product.
Harry Gugger was a toolmaker’s apprentice from 1973 to 1977, before studying machine engineering from 1977 to 1979. From 1984 to 1989 he studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) with Flora Ruchat and at Columbia University, New York with Tadao Ando. He received his degree in architecture at ETH Zurich in 1989. His collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron began in 1990 when he was their assistant at the summer school in Karlsruhe. In 1991 he became a partner of the firm.
Harry Gugger was visiting professor at the Hochschule für Architektur und Bauwesen in Weimar in 1994 and taught at ETH in Lausanne in 2001. He is currently professor at EPFL/ENAC—School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering in Lausanne, where he has been since May 2005.
Harry Gugger has been in charge of the following projects, among others: the two Signal Boxes (1991–1994 and 1998–1999) and the Engine Depot (1991–1995) for the Swiss Federal Railways in Basel, followed by the Eberswalde Technical School Library (1997–1999), Tate Modern in London (1998–2000), and the Head Office for Prada USA in New York (2000-2002). Recent projects include the Laban Dance Centre, London (2000–2003), which was awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize 2003, and the Schaulager Basel Laurenz Foundation (2000–2003).