Photo: the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio, which will host the Forum.

Using potential. Opportunities for more public utility housing is the title of the Forum (Friday 13 September, 11:15–16:45) in which the development possibilities offered by the cooperative model in Ticino and other regions of Switzerland will be presented, enriched by a Focus Ticino (13 September, 9:30–11:00) that will offer further insights.

How can we create more utility housing and, above all, where is it still underrepresented? What strategies are in place to ensure that housing cooperatives take possession of properties? What opportunities do existing buildings offer that can be used or expanded in a different way? And what can we learn from other mountain and tourist Cantons? These and many other questions will be debated during the intensive day on Friday, 13 September 2024 at the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio at the Department of Environment Constructions and Design.

The opening address will be given by Eva Herzog and Monique Bosco-von Allmen (President of Cooperative d’abitazione Svizzera and President of the Section for Italian-speaking Switzerland, respectively). Among the various speeches, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, architect, architectural historian and Harvard professor, is scheduled to give the lecture Social housing as construction of the city. The Red Vienna, a modern strategy.

A group of researchers from SUPSI’s Institute of Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment (ISAAC) has been involved in developing the programme for the Forum and Focus Ticino.

In particular, Francesco Frontini (professor in Innovative Technologies and Sustainable Design, head of ISAAC’s Building System Sector and from 1 September 2024 director of ISAAC) will address a welcome address in the opening part of the Forum; Giovanni Branca (lecturer, senior researcher and head of ISAAC’s Building Management Sector) will provide an insight into the Observatory on Housing in the Canton of Ticino; Domenico Altieri (researcher in ISAAC’s Building Management Sector) will share an analysis of the supply of sustainably rented housing. Jean-Pierre Candeloro, director of the Department of Environment Constructions and Design at SUPSI, will also give a welcome address.

In addition, students from the SUPSI Bachelor of Arts in Architecture will present work they have developed: the redesign of four buildings constructed in Chiasso in the 1970s for two housing cooperatives, as well as the possibility of converting vacant administrative buildings in Lugano for residential projects, investigated in parallel in a research project.

The Forum – which enjoys the patronage of the Federal Housing Office and the Department of Health and Social Affairs of Canton Ticino – will be held at the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio.

For those interested, a visit to some architectural masterpieces in Bellinzona (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) will be offered on Saturday 14 September.

Programme in detail: link

Registration is possible until Friday 30 August 2024 here.
The number of places is limited.

Focus Ticino: free of charge, registration required, in Italian.

Forum: CHF 200 for members of Cooperative d’abitazione; CHF 280 for non-members, registration required, in German and Italian (simultaneous translation into German, French and Italian).

Visit CHF 50, in English (registration is only possible in combination with the Forum).

Institute of Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment SUPSI (ISAAC)

The Institute of Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment promotes the energy transition towards a zero-emission society based on an inter- and transdisciplinary approach in the areas of characterisation and reliability of photovoltaics and their integration in the building, intelligent management of renewable energy in the grid, energy efficiency of buildings and their maintenance. The complex energy transition also includes the proposal of more sustainable choices and lifestyles, involving local and civil society stakeholders.