Architecture competition Charlie Hebdo Portable Pavilion 1st prize winners - Aurélie Monet Kasisi and Anouk Dandrieu

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce the 1st prize winners of our Charlie Hebdo Portable Pavilion competition - Aurélie Monet Kasisi and Anouk Dandrieu from Switzerland!

Charlie Hebdo Portable Pavilion 1st prize winners: Aurélie Monet Kasisi and Anouk Dandrieu from SwitzerlandAurélie Monet Kasisi
Born in Montreal, Aurélie graduated in Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in 2012. She founded her architecture and design practice in Geneva the same year. She currently works on various small to larger scale projects in Switzerland, Canada and the Congo. Aurélie works on a wide range of programs: from the refurbishment of a 17th century old farm in Geneva, to a minimal micro-cabin in the Canadian forest, to a self-constructed mobile stand, or the scenography of a design award ceremony. In parallel, she teaches at the Geneva University of Art and Design where she collaborates with Anthony Engi Meacock from Assemble Studio.

Anouk Dandrieu
Anouk graduated in Architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in 2013. After working in Vietnam, China and Malaysia, she moved back to Switzerland to start her own architecture practice in 2015. In collaboration with four different NGOs, she is currently working on different community-driven projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia and Switzerland.

Collaboration
Anouk and Aurélie currently collaborate on two large community-driven projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo that promote highly participative processes, the use of local materials and self-construction. They both share a willingness to involve and include local populations in their projects, thus generating solutions that are socially and economically sustainable. 

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

We like to think of architecture as a discipline where theory, thinking and making can sit side by side to overcome contemporary issues. It can in fact be a powerful instrument conveying socio-political beliefs.

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

Architecture vision competitions bring contemporary issues to the public arena. They invite us to continue the internal dialogue that questions and redirects thinking in the realm of architecture. As architects, it is a unique opportunity to enrich our practice by not only giving an answer to specific and pragmatic matters, but also using our creativity to seek for radical, utopian or more playful scenarios through research and experimentation. It gives us the chance to be critical about the world and to supplement the practice of our discipline with a heightened self-consciousness.