Intro, Bio, Work March 10, 2017
Atelier is an architecture, urban planning and research atelier led by Marcel Jäggi and Benjamin Leclair-Paquet. Our work is founded on the belief that good design and rigorous urban research must be accessible to everyone. We take on projects that strive for the greater good at the age of the Anthropocene as we seek to contribute to the objectives of environmental sustainability, social equity and cultural sensibility through design, planning and research. Established in 2015, the small but mighty atelier has home grounds in Los Angeles and Zurich, and is frequently reinforced by specialists and external partners. Our services include feasibility and concept studies, architectural and urban designs projects, retrofits, and, curatorial and scholarly research on cities, hinterlands and buildings. Zurich Atelier c/o Marcel Jäggi Aemtlerstrasse 48 8003 Zurich Switzerland jaeggi@jaeggi-leclair.com +41 (0) 76 621 70 40 Los Angeles Atelier c/o Benjamin Leclair-Paquet 855 S Harvard Blvd, #308 Los Angeles, 90005 USA leclair@jaeggi-leclair.com +1 562 280 6977
Marcel Jäggi MSc Architecture (ETH Zurich) BSc Architecture (ETH Zurich) Federal Vocational Baccalaureate Business Administration (WKS Bern) Member Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects SIA Specialization Areas Architecture, Urban Design and Territorial Planning. Country Experience Switzerland, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Marcel is a Swiss architect and researcher. He is a founding principal of Atelier. He studied architecture at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and CEPT Ahmedabad (India). Marcel has worked as a project leader for Ruprecht Architects and pool Architects, the Institute of Archaeology/University of Zurich and several television stations. He joined the ETH Zurich Architecture of Territory team of Prof. Milica Topalovic as a researcher in 2012, where he taught graduate students at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore. Marcel also joined UNRI- KA University in Batam (Indonesia) as a visiting tutor, co-leading design studios on abandoned malls in the region. His work includes largescale urban design projects, residential architecture, kindergartens and research on hinterlands, natural ventilation and haunted spaces. Benjamin J Leclair-Paquet Dr. sc. Architecture (ETH Zurich) MSc Urban Design, Dist. (UCL Bartlett DPU, Distinction) BSc Urban Planning (U Montreal) Specialization Areas Community Planning; Cultural-Racial Integration; Housing & Housing Policy; Informal Architecture; Low-Energy Architecture; Low-Income Housing; Post-Conflict Reconstruction; Retrofits; Urbanism in Violent Areas; Urban Design; Urban History; and, Urban Planning. Country Experience Canada, Japan, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Palestine, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States. Ben is a Canadian urban designer and researcher, and a founding principal of Atelier. He also teaches and co-directs the Urban Humanities Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ben has held various teaching and professional positions, with assignments at the Canadian Center for Architecture, Decolonizing Architecture, ETH Zurich, Halcrow and UCL Bartlett. He has also collaborated on projects with agencies that include Arup, UNESCO, WHO and the EU, as well as municipal authorities in India, Thailand and the UK. He studied in his hometown at Université de Montréal, at the UCL Bartlett, the AA School of Architecture and ETH Zurich.
Work 10 Municipal Archive & Rescue Operations Center Biel/Bienne 9 Catching Rain in Singapore 8 Artist Residence Horben 7 Hinterlands Singapore beyond the Border 6 Hinterlands Singapore beyond the Border 5 Cartographies of Planetary Urbanization 4 Emergence of New Building Industries / Lack of Comfort 3 Breathless Making Buildings and Weather in Sumatra 2 BAMA 1 Chungking Mansions Hong Kong s Low-End Globalization Hub
Atelier Medieval map with Nidau castle and the territory of the city of Biel/Bienne in the foreground (source: Municipal Archive Biel/Bienne) Municipal Archive and Rescue Operations Center Biel/Bienne Project Nr.: 10 Place: Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) Client: Municipality of Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) Type: Architecture Procedure: Project competition, open and anonymous Year: 2017 Team: Marcel Jäggi, Benjamin Leclair-Paquet Collab.: Studio Cornel Stäheli, SysThink Status: Ongoing Budget: > 10M CHF Design competition for the municipal archive and the regional rescue operations center (>3000m2 usable floor space) in the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne. www.biel-bienne.ch
Extract from Harvard Design Magazine vol. 43 Shelf Life. Catching Rain in Singapore Project Nr.: 9 Place: Singapore, Malaysia Client: Harvard Design Magazine, USA Type: Research & Writing Procedure: Direct commssion Year: 2016 Team: Benjamin Leclair-Paquet Collab.: Status: Realized Contribution to Harvard Design Magazine vol. 43, research and writing on urban and architectural strategies for rainwater harvesting in Singapore. http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/43
Atelier Study models on the site, scale 1:10, (photo: Marcel Jäggi) Artist Residence Horben Project Nr.: 8 Place: Horben (Canton Thurgau, Switzerland) Client: Private, Switzerland Type: Architectural Design, Feasibility Study Procedure: direct commission Year: 2015Team: Marcel Jäggi Collab.: Reto Müller & Martina Perrin Status: ongoing A former washing and baking house in the rural village of Horben is is getting renovated. After the proposed trans formation of the original timber frame construction, the small countryside house will serve as an artist residency and studio.
Copy editing for forthcoming publication (photo: Marcel Jäggi). Hinterlands Singapore beyond the Border Project Nr.: 7 Place: Los Angeles Client: Architecture of Territory, Prof M. Topalovic, ETH Zurich Type: Copy editing Procedure: Direct commission Year: 2016- Team: Benjamin Leclair-Paquet Collab.: Status: Ongoing Copy editing of forthcoming publication. www.architectureofterritory.com
Water catchment area, Singapore. (redrawn by Atelier from P. Deschenaux, S. Zemp, Architecture of Territory). Hinterlands Singapore beyond the Border Project Nr.: 6 Place: Zurich, Los Angeles, Singapore Client: Architecture of Territory, Prof M. Topalovic, ETH Zurich Type: Research & Writing Procedure: Direct commission Year: 2015- Team: Marcel Jäggi, Benjamin Leclair-Paquet Collab.: Architecture of Territory Status: Ongoing Two book chapters addressing the territorial implication of food and water importation and domestic production on the spatial and political landscape of Singapore. www.architectureofterritory.com
Shenzhen Biennale Cartographies of Planetary Urbanization (photo: Bas Princen) Cartographies of Planetary Urbanization Project Nr.: 5 Place: Shenzhen (China), Zurich, Los Angeles Client: Architecture of Territory, Prof M. Topalovic, ETH Zurich Type: Exhibition Procedure: Direct Commission Year: 2015-2016 Team: Marcel Jäggi, Benjamin Leclair Collab.: Architectue of Territory Status: Realized Contributions to a group exhibition titled Cartographies of Planetary Urbanization, presented at the Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture. Project co-directed by Milca Topalovic, Christian Schmid and Neil Brenner. The exhibit presented on-going work that seeks to contribute new ways to represent contemporary forms of urbanization and develop theories that recognize that urbanization is a hybrid of varied socio-spatial process.
Extract from Natural Ventilation, Revisited, FCL Magazine Special Issue, edited by Sascha Roesler, 2015 Emergence of New Building Industries / Lack of Comfort Project Nr.: 4 Place: Medan (Indonesia), Singapore, Zurich Client: Research Module of Territorial Organisation, Prof M. Angélil, ETH Zurich Type: Research & Writing Procedure: Direct Commission Year: 2015 Team: Marcel Jäggi Collab.: Prof. Dr. Sascha Roesler, Ani Vihervaara, Karoline Kostka Status: Realized Two articles in the based on fieldwork carried out in the Sumatran city of Medan, as part of the Man-made Weather research project by Future Cities Laboratory Singapore and the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich. While article one focuses on systemic transformation in local building industries, article two is looking at the consequences of this from a residents perspective.
Extract from Scapegoat Journal Issue Nr. 8 Weather, Winter/Spring 2015 Breathless Making Buildings and Weather on Sumatra Project Nr.: 3 Place: Medan (Indonesia), Singapore, Zurich Client: Scapegoat Journal, Canada Type: Research & Writing Procedure: Direct commission Year: 2015 Team: Marcel Jäggi Collab.: Prof. Dr. Sascha Roesler, David Moats (proof reading) Status: Realized This essay is based on fieldwork carried out in the Sumatran city of Medan, as part of the Man-made Weather research project by Future Cities Laboratory Singapore and the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich. It concerns some of the manifold feedback loops (e.g. between human behaviour, buildings, city, territory, interior and exterior climates) that are involved in the making of man-made weather in the region.
BAMA rooftop painting: low-cost retrofit as a system design intervention (photo: Marcel Brülisauer) BAMA Project Nr.: 2 Place: Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) Client: BAMA Convenience Stores, Mexico Type: Building efficiency study Procedure: Direct commission Year: 2015 Team: Benjamin Leclair-Paquet Collab.: SysThink Status: Realized Energy-Saving Architectural and System Design interventions for a chain of 100+ corner stores in Mexico. The project allowed the client to lower its energy use by over 20% through no-to-low cost retrofits.
Atelier Extract from Informal Market Worlds, Atlas, edited by Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, 2015 Project Nr. 1 Title: Chungking Mansions: Hongkong s Low-End Globalization Hub Place: Hong Kong, Zurich Client: P. Mörtenböck, H. Mooshammer, Goldsmiths, London Type: Research & Writing Procedure: Direct commission Year: 2015 Team: Marcel Jäggi, Benjamin Leclair-Paquet (proof reading) Collab.: Jacob Jansen (co-author) Status: Realized Shadow economies account for half of the world s economic activities. In countries such as Bolivia, Nigeria, India and the Philippines, almost 80 per cent of the non-agricultural working population work in the informal economy. For this atlas, we contributed a case study on Hong Kong s Chungking Mansion (based on previous research at ETH Studio Basel) http://www.nai010.com/en/atlasinformalmarket
c/o Marcel Jäggi Aemtlerstrasse 48 8003 Zurich Switzerland mj@jaeggi-leclair.com +41 (0) 76 621 70 40 c/o Benjamin Leclair-Paquet 855 S Harvard Blvd, #308 Los Angeles, 90005 USA leclair@jaeggi-leclair.com +1 562 280 6977