Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Jean Souviron
2024-2025
Country of origin (home institution)
France
Discipline(s)
Urban and architectural studies
Theme(s)
Energy & Renewable Resources; Environment, Sustainability & Biodiversity
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Jean Souviron (born in 1988 in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, FR) is an architect and civil engineer. As a researcher, he studies 20th-century building techniques and their relationship with indoor climates and the environment, analyzing the ecological, social, and architectural impact resulting from the implementation of energy and industrial policies. His research combines history of architecture and technology, industrial and territorial ecology, and environmental humanities.
Jean received his PhD from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE) in 2022. His doctoral research, supported by the Fonds national de la recherche scientifique (FNRS), focused on the socio-technical trajectory of the insulating glass unit, questioning its contribution to the development of new expectations of comfort and thus to the growth of the environmental footprint of Western societies.
Before joining the Collegium, Jean was a lecturer at the ENSA Paris-Belleville from 2022 until 2024, where his teaching focused on the uses, techniques, and physical phenomena involved in the construction of indoor environments, with particular attention to the issues raised by climate change and ecological upheaval.
Research Project
Sealed Climates: Mapping the Ecological Impact of the Western European Thermal Modernity
Sealants, waterproofing membranes, vapor and rain barriers, insulation materials, and insulating glass units have become ubiquitous in our buildings over the course of the 20th century. They condition and express the relationship between our societies and their environment, and reflect the development of a Western thermal modernity based on the construction of increasingly sealed indoor climates. As a result, new definitions of comfort and performance have been established, which now frame EU environmental policy and renovation strategy. However, the products most commonly marketed today to insulate our buildings require the extraction of raw materials transported and transformed through globalized industrial processes that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels and ecologically unequal exchanges. This project aims to provide policy makers, researchers, and civil society with a better understanding of the ecological impact of insulating Western European architecture. It will assess, historicize, and map the material and energy flows associated with the production, use, and obsolescence of these products to examine how they have impacted people and ecosystems in Europe and beyond.
Research Interests:
environment; history of architecture and technology; industrial and territorial ecology; environmental humanities