A wealth of architecture on paper: that is their treasure. It is in the office archives of architects, engineers and construction companies throughout the Romand territory and its adjacent regions that the Archives of Modern Construction – an Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne institution, created in 1988 – finds its livelihood. Since 1996, they have also been committed to making this architectural heritage known through publications and through design, photography and model exhibitions at the university site in Ecublens (since 2003) and sometimes also beyond its walls. They have combined the absolute rigor essential for professionals and students with presentation in a way that is accessible for all.
Revealing society
By opening up their collections for conservation and scientific analysis, the ACM is also devoted to highlighting all the facets of the regional history that they reveal: from politics to the economy, from changes in society to advances in techniques and materials, from the history of housing to that of taste, not to mention the history of architectural design. Among its exhibitions, we find monographs dedicated to Alberto Sartoris, Alphonse Laverrière and Eugène Jost, and thematic overviews such as “Crazy places and monuments to reason”, “Flower displays in art gardens” or “Photography and modern architecture”.
