ConstructLab is the description of a collaborative construction practice working on both ephemeral and permanent projects. Unlike the conventional architectural process in which the architect designs and the builder builds, in constructLab, the project’s conception and construction are brought together. The designer builds and continues to design on site.
The construction site is no longer the place of uncertainty where the design contends with reality, but the context in which the project can be enriched by the unexpected opportunities that occur on site. The designers-builders bring the site to life through their permanent presence, generating new dynamics between people and allowing them to integrate other participants. This synergy results in a collective work, and gives the building site a sense of place.
The idea behind constructLab’s practice is also to rediscover a constructive intelligence in materials themselves, to design at the same time as we handle the material. In foreground are low-tech and simplicity. It is not about technical prowess, but rather finding a common sense approach whose building techniques can be appropriated and used by everyone.
ConstructLab is more about the approach to, rather than the method of, building. ConstructLab’s work integrates environmental awareness from conception to realisation. Projects are made with recycled materials or for temporary projects designed and built with future re-use of the raw materials in mind. Throughout its projects, constructLab binds the creative and the practical, thinking and making, and sets the project within a social, environmental and temporal context.
THE CONSTRUCTLAB HYMN
Construction is the first step of inhabitation
a door to the social reality of a particular locus
an amplifier of an already existing potential
a balance between individual desires and collective vision
the practice of a collaborative body
an exercise in engagement
open and accessible to all
as a participatory process
Construction is about embracing all surprises
not only a final form
a tool for communication
not only for the shaping of the material forms that surround us;
but our imagination towards different futures
A building site is a learning site
a meeting point
a microcosm
party
Contact: info@constructlab.net