Architecture is founded on programs built on the insights of past experiences. How, then, to meet the current needs of society, or to anticipate its future needs? In contrast to the functional idea of a singular use of space, the present requires a more nuanced approach. The history of the architectural typology was built on the differentiation of types according to program, whereas today’s research focuses on a temporal approach to type, a sustainable approach – a form of research, that is, that opens the type up to adaptability, flexibility or even reversibility.

Typology is a modern tool that must be adapted to the needs of our time. It is a question of going beyond its purely functional meaning in order to conceive of spaces more open to the indeterminate.

The laboratory has been working on these questions for several years. Whether based on types of facilities such as the theater, the prison or the court, or on types of activities, of offices or of housing, the approach is consistently first of all analytical. It is about understanding how architecture met a precise societal need over time, analyzing the various types of spatial devices invented by architects to meet the same need. Architecture is an art that has spanned the ages; it is important to situate the problems of the contemporary within this long timeframe. Each problem has its history.

The question of housing is possibly that which generates the most expectations today: how to take into account the fragmentation of residential development, the multicultural nature of society, the evolutions of the family unity, the impact of the current health crisis… ?

The typology is an indicator of the evolution of housing, it is one of the architect’s tools for contributing to the well-being of the occupant, and like any tool it can be improved. The lockdown only reinforced this idea.