Architects: Giona Bierens de Haan
Year: 2026
Photography: Simone Bossi
Project Designed For: i2a Biennale del Territorio
City: Lugano
Country: Switzerland
It All Remains, designed by Giona Bierens de Haan for the 2026 i2a Biennale del Territorio in Lugano, Switzerland, explores the potential of obsolete automobiles as building materials for future architecture. The project examines Switzerland’s existing automotive resources, drawing attention to the nearly five million registered vehicles circulating across the country, equivalent to approximately 0.5 cars per inhabitant. According to the project statement, around 200,000 vehicles are removed from circulation annually, with approximately two-thirds exported to countries operating under more flexible regulations. This practice raises questions about Switzerland’s reliance on neighboring countries to “green” its economy while transferring responsibility for resources that could potentially be recovered and reused domestically. Rather than accepting vehicle disposal and export as inevitable outcomes, the proposal encourages a reconsideration of the material value embedded in existing automobiles. Anticipating a future in which cars may become remnants of a society built around oil, It All Remains proposes an alternative perspective on their continued relevance. By considering the automobile as a potential architectural resource, the project connects questions of mobility, obsolescence, and material reuse with the possibilities of tomorrow’s built environment.
It All Remains questions what society chooses to preserve, discard, or overlook as its relationship with mobility evolves. Giona Bierens de Haan approaches the automobile through its physical permanence, suggesting that the disappearance of its original function does not necessarily eliminate its potential usefulness.
The proposal challenges the conventional treatment of end-of-life vehicles, particularly the practice of relocating unwanted resources rather than reconsidering their value within the territory where they origi nate. It encourages an alternative understanding of material responsibility, in which existing objects are assessed for their possible contribution to future construction.
By proposing cars as a building material for tomorrow’s architecture, It All Remains positions the legacy of an oil-dependent society within a broader discussion of resource reuse. Rather than presenting the transition beyond fossil fuels solely as a question of replacing existing technologies, the project asks how architecture might engage with the physical remains of those technologies.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Lugano, Switzerland
