Civic Friche Vol 2 by Civic Friche

CIVIC FRICHE JOURNAL OF EMERGENT URBANITY

9 780557 652761

90000

ISBN 978-0-557-65276-1

Printed in Michigan France / Germany / Belgium / Italy / Spain / Netherlands 18 Euro USD 22

/ Jakob + MacFarlane / Franklin Azzi / Coloco / Edouard Francois / bureau des Fatasmes Urbaines / Patrick BeaucĂŠ / Belleville Portes Ouvertes / Encore Heureux / Anish Kapoor / Fichtre! /

Grégoire Alexandre HISTOIRES PARALLÉLES

PHOTOGRAPHIC COMMISSION OCTOBER 30, 2011 - JANUARY 15, 2012 OPENING OCTOBER 29 VILLA NOAILLES, HYÈRES COMMUNAUTÉ D’AGGLOMÉRATION TOULON PROVENCE MÉDITERRANÉE

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content 12

Encore Heureux Build a Dive Bar(ge)

Lab LABANQUE

Fichtre!

Un Oeil Unique

Le Fresnoy

Open Doors

Franklin Azzi

Villa Noailles

121

126

137

143 150

COLOCO in Montreuil

RGB DIY

Pampas de Rolex

Les Frigos

Edouard Franรงois

Anish Kapoorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leviathan lands

BASE Camp Belleville

Three Ports

100

108

Digital Pleasure

Notre Dame du Travail

Rue du Noyer

156 162 Meta Tag

Jakob + MacFarlane

team

VIRGINIA BLACK

MELISSA BONFIL

Virginia Black wants to be an architect. One time, she almost beat Jordan in a dance-off at the Lieu Unique in Nantes (see: Jordan Johnson). She grew up in South Carolina and is proud to have relocated to the burgeoning metropolis that is Ann Arbor. You can find her drinking coffee and changing line weights in Illustrator. She holds many self-prescribed and informal titles, including theoretician of the blatant, fondue guide, traveler, scavenger and gypsy. She is interested in fashion, body architecture, disintegration, texture, 90s game system fonts, cilantro and list-making. Items of religious significance include tone-ontone, beards and brutalism.

Having been raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the latin flavor follows Melissa and makes her dance even if there is no music playing. Melissa speaks fluent English, Spanish, Italian, has some knowledge of Portuguese. She attended the University of Michigan, where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Architecture, and decided that 4 years wasn’t enough, so she went straight through to obtain her Masters. Some of Melissa’s interests include drawing techniques, the fast pace of technology advancement and its effects in architecture and society, and the relationship between music and architecture spatially. She always has a smile on her face, but do not mess with her; she has been playing field hockey since the age of six.

JEEEUN HAM

JENNIFER KOMOROWSKI

Jeeeun Ham received a bachelor’s degree in housing and interior design from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. She is now a 2nd year graduate student at the University of Michigan. Her interests include the process of abandonment and redevelopment of architectures in urban sites.

Fluent in English, sarcasm, hyperdetailed storytelling, and hopefully one day French, Jennifer believes in the daily adventures that change your perception of the world from spontaneous conversations to occasional shopping cart rides through Paris. Photographic subjects of interest include corners, trash, and rocks. Although an adventurous explorer of foods, she admits a head of fresh broccoli and a variety of cereal constitute the most beloved items in her pantry. Despite claiming to be no grammar snob, she is irritated by contractions in formal papers and any sentence ending in a preposition.

PEYTON COLES

JOSEPH FILIPPELLI

B R I T TA N Y GACSY

CHRISTOPHER REZNICH

MICHAEL SANDERSON

Peyton Coles was born and raised in The Plains, Virginia and received his undergraduate degree in English from Middlebury College in 2008. He is currently in year two of his three year M.Arch degree at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning. Peyton is interested in entrepreneurial architecture, business’ role in emergent urban projects, and ecological economics.

Joe(y) Filippelli is a former Buckeye, but full blown Michigander for the better part of the decade. When not pulling all-nighters or chasing down Renzo Piano for an autograph, he enjoys photography, cooking, eating, fly fishing, and a good round of golf (all at the same time of course). He find inspiration from architecture that blurs the boundaries and logics between landscape and built form. Ultimately, he hopes to launch his own firm.

Brittany Gacsy came into this world with a power drill in one hand and the steering wheel of her Detroit made, candy apple red, Ford Mustang in the other. Born in the The Steel City, she grew up unsure of her lifes path. As a result, she collected majors like trading cards and eventually landed on architecture. Only through architecture can brit fully entertain her life motto of “more is more”.

Chris Reznich is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in architecture. In his spare time, he likes long walks and longer talks, is enlivened when they go somewhere, enjoys that sunshine makes the plants grow, but prefers to lay in the shade; he picks up every penny in case it’s lucky, and will always finish the wine.

Michael Sanderson tackled the boulevards of Paris with his two enduring companions . . . a magenta Canon and a pair of exceptionally weathered sandals. Despite insufficient footwear and a perpetual lack of a map, he’s a firm believer that everything eventually works out for the best. He has a passion for architecture, travel, and architectural travel. Can spend little, but laugh a lot. He attributes his carefree nature to his West Michigan, Grand Haven upbringing. He’s a big fan of Paris cuisine, specifically microwave doner kebab and Spar convenience store beer blondes. Thanks in large to his pursuit of becoming an architect, other interests include sleeping, sleeping in, and sleeping in class.

KYUNG JIN HONG

JORDAN JOHNSON

BRIAN M U S C AT

ASH THOMAS

C AT I E TRUONG

KyungJin Hong comes from South Korea, and she is currently a 2G graduate student at the Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning. She loves picnic tools, maps, sneakers, backpack, any kinds of coffee and music, TV, incandescent lighting, aroma therapy oils, goose down comforter, sofa, and home-home.

Jordan Johnson is in his second year of the Master of Archicture program at Taubman College. Prior to pursuing graduate study, Jordan attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Jordan is a lifelong resident of Michigan. Since living in Paris, Jordan has adopted an entirely new outlook on life. Admittedly, he has not yet mastered the Parisian way of life. But in the process has found solace at MacDo, and the occasional Taco Bell. Gotta love Michigan.

Brian Muscat studied architecture at the Taubman college of architecture and is currently studying at the school of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. Brian is inspired by the way each field informs the other. His current research and interests focus on the anamorphic, materials and structure, as well as relationship of aggregate parts to the whole.

Ash Thomas is finishing up her undergraduate degree in architecture at The University of Michigan and then immediately on to graduate school to get her master’s in architecture. She aspires to become a licensed architect and work in a firm designing homes.

Born and raised in sunny Colorado, she moved east after high school in pursuit of becoming an architect. Similar to the distinguished Ace of Cakes, she plans on starting a firm with her trusted allies where they will design ridiculous structures and sell them for an obscene amount of money in order to pay off looming school debt. New to the traveling business, she was understandably longing for the comforts of home. A relentless (and successful) search of Dr. Pepper, and a 600 pound shipment of assorted American candies and Original Recipe beef jerky was a sure fix. Beyond architecture, Catie likes to think of herself as a sarcastic practitioner, an amateur cartoonist, a part-time movie- quoter and a professional procrastinator.

statement

Let’s talk friche. It’s an odd term to define. Wasteland is close. Neglected territory. Abandoned site. Close, again. But much too melancholic. Too weighty, too penitent. Friche is more playful, more optimistic. Dare we say, liberating? More to the point: friche is an ideology. It assumes that we can romp with abandon, move fast, transform, hijack and subvert when space is rendered less precious, less auratic.

cover photo Brittany Gacsy

A friche site, appropriated or new, begins with an understanding of its physical and cultural parameters, followed by the assumption that things will change. New programs will emerge. Cultural and economic shifts will take place. In this scenario, the architect is released from the post of dogmatic creator. In the friche model the collective, the vernacular, the partial, and the idiosyncratic triumph, with the self-conscious understanding that these logics will also be displaced over time.

CREATIVE DIRECTION Steven Christensen | Jean Louis Farges | Anya Sirota PRODUCTION MANAGER Bruce Findling DIRECTING MANAGER Brittany Gacsy VJ COLLABORATIVE Christopher Reznich Virginia Black FASHION EDITOR Virginia Black CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Virginia Black Melissa Bonfil Peyton Coles Joseph Filippelli Brittany Gacsy Christopher Reznich Michael Sanderson

Jeeeun Ham Jennifer Komorowski Kyung Jin Hong Jordan Johnson Brian Muscat Catherine Truong GUEST ARTIST PHOTOGRAPHERS Marie Combes Patrick Renaud CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Virginia Black Melissa Bonfil Peyton Coles Joseph Filippelli Brittany Gacsy Christopher Reznich Michael Sanderson Jeeeun Ham Jennifer Komorowski Kyung Jin Hong Jordan Johnson Brian Muscat Ash Thomas Catherine Truong

Last spring we traveled to France for second time to study the friche phenomenon. We looked at the tactical appropriation of marginal sites for public function. And we explored ways in which ideas from friche projects could infiltrate a variety of sites and typologies. We discovered that friche has grown up. That an entire cadre of architects had abstracted and applied the lessons of appropriation to architecture and urban design projects on virgin sites. That notions of flexibility, material economy, blurred boundaries, and the tactical use of architecture as catalyst could find applications across the discipline. We investigated the most important examples of what we now termed the Meta Friche. And in conversations with the architects, landscape architects, scenographers, politicians, and artists involved in the design and implementation of these design strategies, we speculated how the ideology of friche could be brought home. These are the field notes, thoughts, and dialogue.

COMMUNICATIONS Virgnia Black Brittany Gascy PARTICIPANTS AND LECTURERS Franklin Azzi Patrick Beaucé Raphaele Billé Nicolas Bonnenfant Gaelle Breton Thomas Cantin Julien Choppin Marie Combes Nicola Delon Chloé Dragna Natacha Guillaumont Edouard François Wilfrid Lelou Brendan MacFarlane Pierre Oudart Frédéric Péchereau Christophe Ponceau Patrick Renaud TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Anais Farges

SPECIAL THANKS Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan The International Institute Experiential Learning Fund, University of Michigan Magellan Properties, Ann Arbor Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

PETIT BAIN STILLS MELISSA BONFIL + BRIAN M U S CAT

PETIT BAIN IS A CURIOUS LITTLE BARGE COMMISSIONED BY THE N O N - P RO F I T G RO U P G U I N G E T T E P I R A R E . I T R E C E N T LY D O C K E D O N T H E Q U A I O F T H E S E I N E I N F RO N T OF THE FRANCE’S DISTINGUISHED B I B L I OT H È Q U E N AT I O N A L FRANÇOIS MITTERRAND. Pe t i t B a i n , a p i e c e o f f l o a t i n g c u l t u r a l infrastructure designed on a skinny budget by Nicolas Delon and Julien Choppin of Encore Heureux, is equipped with a concert hall, m u l t i m e d i a s t u d i o , r e s t a u r a n t , b a r, o f f i c e , terrace, and veget able garden. The program i s d u a l . Ye s , t h e r e i s l e i s u r e . H e r e y o u c a n d a n c e , o r l e a r n t o d a n c e , e a t , d r a w, g a r d e n , a n d f i x y o u r b i c y c l e . Yo u c a n l i s t e n t o s l a m a n d m u s i c . Yo u c a n w a t c h s w i m m e r s w o r k o n their breast stroke in the floating pool n ext d o o r. B u t , t h e n , t h e r e i s e n t e r p r i s e . T h e P e t i t Bain provides training and assist ance to a l a b o r fo r c e i n t r a n s i t i o n , e a s i n g r e i n s e r t i o n into an unapologetically competitive economic landscape. In the past, Guingette Pirare h a d u s e d r e f u r b i s h e d b a r g e s fo r t h e h y b r i d cultural and economic programming. But as their project took on a more permanent logic, t h e y s e c u r e d f u n d i n g fo r a n ew h o m e. T h e floating cultural venue is an upgrade and a m e t a - a p p r o p r i a t i o n i n a n o d e t o t h e a g e n c y ’s fo r m e r m o d e o f o r g a n i z a t i o n . P l u s , t h e ye l l ow is perfect.

encore heureux build a dive bar(ge)

interview

LAB LABANQUE BETHUNE

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK BEAUCÉ ____ CONVERSATION WITH ANYA SIROTA PHOTOGRAPHY KYUNG JIN HONG AND JEAN LOUIS FARGES more @ lab-labanque.fr

Repurposing of vacated industrial s p a c e fo r u s e by t h e visual art sector has, in the past d e c a d e s, b e c o m e c o nve n t i o n a l , o f t e n of ficialized urban practice. Galleries, a rt i s t - r u n s p a c e s, a n d m u s e u m s h ave e a g e r ly t ra d e d t h e a n t i s ep t i c wh i t e d i s p l ay b o x fo r t h e a u rat i c p at i n a o f p ro d u c t ive g r u n g e .

r t institutions have enthusiastically morphed into a r t f a c t o r i e s, symbolically blurring modes of consumption and production, leisure and work, while plugging into a collective fascination w i t h p e r fo r m at i ve p r o c e s s e s. But what about more contemporar y or more unapologetically banal detritus? W hat about buildings with dubious historic appeal, those lacking riveted t r u s s e s, m o n u m e n t a l s c a l e, a n d t h e chimerically melancholic atmosphere t h at m a ke s t h e p o s t - i n d u s t r i a l s o uncomfor tably tantalizing? Can

p r o s a i c s i t e s s t i l l c avo r t m i s c h i evo u s ly with more urbane and promiscuous cultural appropriations? Fo r P a t r i q u e B e a u c é , c o - f o u n d e r o f Objectil and associate professor at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d e Va l e n c i e n n e s , t h e a n s w e r i s a n i n d e f a t i g a b l e Ye s . Fo r t h e p a s t y e a r, Beaucé has headed The Apartment, a research initiative and installation project in Bethune’s LAB LABANQUE. A former branch of the Bank of France, which drained of its original prog ram following the substitution of the French fr anc by the Euro, has been transformed in a center for the production and dissemination of visual a r t s. T h e e a r ly 1 9 t h c e n t u r y bu i l d i n g

Patrick Beaucé, a design er and visual artist, was born i n B r e t a g n e , Fr a n c e . H e i s a graduate of the Ecole des BeauxArts de Rennes and Nîmes. In collaboration with Bern ard Cache, B e a u c é i s a fo u n d i n g p a r t n e r o f the Laboratory of Architecture and Design, Objectile. His constructed and speculative work fo c u s e s o n a d v a n c e d t e c h n i q u e s in digital fabrication and mass customization. Patrick Beaucé lives in Paris and is a professor at the Ecole Supérieure des B e a u x - A r t s d e Va l e n c i e n n e s .

is tidy and unassuming within urban conte xt. Inside, the bank’s spatial and structural logics have been left untouched: the office, the vault, the a r c h i ve s, a n d t h e b a n k m a n ag e r ’ s domestic space playfully preser ved in the condition in which they were found 5 ye ar s ago. I t i s h e r e t h at Pat r i c k B e a u c é ’ s w o r k , developed in conjunction with ar t a n d d e s i g n s t u d e n t s a t t h e E S B AV, r e fl e c t s o n ke y i s s u e s r e l at e d t o contemporar y living through analysis and e xperimentation. The speculative prototypes on display at The Apartment tackle the social, cultural, economic, spatial and environmental parameters embedded in questions of domestic space, and envision

alter nate as well as future modes of segmentation, distribution and opportunistic alliance. A S : Yo u r r e s e a r c h d e a l s w i t h individuation, mass customization and the potential for functional r e a l i g n m e n t s i n d o m e s t i c o p e r at i o n s. How did you fir st star t working on the Apar tment Project at Lab Labanque? PB: The idea for the apartment p ro j e c t g rew o u t o f c o l l ab o rat ive desire of both students and instructors in the 5th year Design School of Art and Design in Va l e n c i e n n e s t o w o r k o n c o n c r e t e projects and to actually realize them.

Our first step was to establish relationships and build partnerships with local manufacturers, to merge interests in industrial manufacturing, artisanal production and design. What we are hoping to do is to reimagine the entire manufacturing process, and u l t i m a t e l y, t o m a k e n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s and manufacturing techniques ava i l abl e t o eve r yo n e . A S : Te l l u s a l i t t l e a b o u t t h e c u r r e n t installation. PB: The project was launched at L ab - L ab a n q u e B e t h u n e wh e re t h e first collection of objects and design concepts was presented as p a rt o f a n eve r- evo l v i n g e x h i b i t i o n

titled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The apartment, a metaphor for the world.â&#x20AC;? The current Bethune 2011 collection features objects relating to domestic space, and reflects on the attitudes and actions a d o p t e d by i n d iv i d u a l s i n h ab i t i n g s p a c e . T h e s p e c u l at ive o b j e c t s t h at are of particular interest are those that engage issues of performance and industrial remnants as an organizational paradigm, as well as the aesthetic sensibility of the wo rk . W h at t h e p ro j e c t s a l s o h ave i n common is that the manufacturing c o s t s a re kep t t o a m i n i m u m . S o t h e ch a l l e n g e i s t o c o n c e ive o f p ro j e c t ive , o p p o rt u n i s t i c d e s i g n , u s i n g i nve n t ive , b u t h u m bl e m e a n s.

AS: By what process do the students experiment with new modes of design and inhabitation? Is this a site specific project? Does it relate to the ar tisanal and manufacturing resources in the immediate region? PB: Here we are experimenting with s eve ra l m o d e s o f f ab r i c at i o n . B u t again the parallel between projects tends to be a concern with the intelligent deployment of simple, af fordable materials, in other words, we try to limit the quantity of m a t e r i a l s u s e d . Fo r m o s t o f t h e s e o b j e c t s, t h e a s s e m bly i s i n t u i t ive , using interlocking fasteners and other simple techniques.

B u t m o r e i m p o r t a n t l y, t h e r e a r e t w o r e a s o n s w hy m y t e a c h i n g a n d design research interrogate these modes of production, the nature and c o n d i t i o n s o f t h at w e f i n d o u r s e l ve s i n wh e n we c o n s i d e r t h e f ab r i c at i o n of the objects that surround and engage us. The first is that there is a pressing moral responsibility to consider the full range of acts and consequences b e h i n d eve r y d e s i g n . T h e s e c o n d i s that work has become rarified in our s o c i e t y. We c a n o b s e r v e t h i s p h e n o m e n o n i n t e ch n i c a l d eve l o p m e n t s a n d mechanization. More and more streamlined modes of production

c o n t i nu e t o m a ke s m a l l e r a m o u n t s of human labor needed to produce goods. And, of course, we continue to witness the relocation of manufacturing goods to countries w i t h l o w l a b o r c o s t s . Fa c e d with this worrying condition, a n x i o u s p o l i t i c i a n s a dvo c at e re industrialization. So we can see labor issues crossing into the territories of heterogeneous realities: aesthetics, i n v e n t i o n , t e c h n o l o g y, e c o n o m i c s , s o c i e t y, p o l i t i c s , h i s t o r y, g e o g r a p hy. Our goal, therefore, in fostering t h e s e s p e c u l at ive d e s i g n p ro p o s a l s you see at the Apartment of Lab Labanque is to attempted to address these dif ferent dimensions in

production, labor and design and to begin to understand certain correlations between them. In the current project students were i nv i t e d t o e x p e r i m e n t w i t h f ive e d u c at i o n a l p ro p o s a l s i n wh i ch the nature of work, conditions for its exercise were specific a n d m e a n i n g f u l . O u r a i m t o h ave students engage contemporary practice first hand. AS: There is something thoroughly peculiar the bank as a cultural i n s t i t i t u t i o n s. V i d e o i n s t a l l at i o n s in the vault. Dance parties in the a r c h i ve s. T h e m at e r i a l p a l e t t e l e f t b e h i n d - r u g s, o r n a m e n t a l t i l e s, counter s â&#x20AC;&#x201C; seems to essentially ask the visitor to occupy the space of

capital. Does this change the way the public interacts with the site and installation work? And for the students working on the design projects in the apartment space, does the site influence their inter rogations? PB: It is cer tainly a ver y unusual approproriation project - Lab Labanque - with a ver y distinct logic. I am par ticularly str uck by the quality of the apartment. It belonged to the b a n k m a n a g e r, s o h e l i v e d j u s t a b o v e t h e b a n k w i t h h i s f a m i l y. T h e s c a l e o f the domestic space is phenomenal. And working in this apartment forefronts shifts in socio-economic conditions o v e r t i m e . We a s k s t u d e n t s t o investigate the space in contemporar y s c a l e s, w i t h a ve r y r e a l s e t o f

e c o n o m i c c o n s t r a i n t s. A n d I f i n d t h e dissonance between the former use and the cur rent proposals e xce ptionally p r o d u c t i v e . To i m a g i n e a n a l t e r n a t e domestic realm within an outmoded one is a compelling design problem.

FICHTRE! S T I L L S V I R G I N I A B L A C K , B R I T TA N Y G A C S Y, C H R I S R E Z N I C H

I n t h e fi ve s h o r t ye a r s s i n c e c r e a t i n g F i c h t r e ! Fr é d é r i c P é c h e r e a u , T h o m a s Cantin and Wilfrid Lelou have su bst antiated a practice that revels in the ascendency of the micro, the direct, t h e u n f u s s y, t h eSuTr IbLa L n ,St hBe Rc IoTl lTA e c tN i vY e, GASCY + CHRIS a n d t h e h u m b l y Rt rEaZn sNf oI C r mHa/t iT v eE. XFo T r Bt hRi Is T TA N Y G A S C Y c o l l a b o r a t i ve, c r a f t d e fi e s n o s t a l g i a fo r a r t i s a n a l f a b r i c a t i o n a n d e n t e r s t h e r e a l m o f e x p l o r a t i o n a n d i m m e d i a c y. H e r e a n y g i ve n i n t e r ve n t i o n u n fo l d s f r o m p r o t o t y p e t o fi n a l a s s e m b l y a s a continuous design process. The result is a collection of constructions and insertions, both permanent and ephemeral, which no m atter how sm all, inv ariably explore the ver y n ature of pu blic space and how it asser ts itself i n t h e c i t y. Fi c h t r e ! b u i l d s m o b i l e f u r n i s h i n g s , rolling shops, objects and installations. Fr é d é r i c , T h o m a s a n d W i l f r e d s t a g e events and ar t happenings. They play musical instruments. They use c i r c u l a r s aw s a n d e l e c t r i c d r i l l s . T h e i r interventions cannot be confused with s i t e s p e c i fi c a r t w o r k s o f t h e l e a n years. Nor is their project an ironic distillation of spatial experience. If we dare to conjure up the notion of l i b e r t y, t h e n p e r h a p s t h e i r p l a y f u l work seeks to impart the same nona u t h o r i t a r i a n p l e a s u r e s t h a t fo r m the ver y logic behind their own collaborative practice.

>> more at fichtre.org

>> IN 2009 FICHTRE! COMPLETED AN UNROLLING GIFT SHOP FOR LIEU UNIQUE IN NANTES

<< FICHTRE! STREET FURNISHINGS OUTSIDE ALSTON HALL. TES

un Ĺ&#x201C;il unique

A MONSTER HIDDEN IN THE FOREST OF M I L LY L A F O R Ê T O F F E R S I N S I G H T I N T O THE POWER OF COLLABORATION AND PRESENTS A MIRROR TO REFLECT UPON OUR OWN OCCASIONAL INHUMANITY

STORY BY BRIAN MUSCAT / IMAGES BY JEEEUN HAM, CATIE T R U O N G , B R I T TA N Y G A C S Y + S T E V E N C H R I S T E N S E N

ifty miles south of Paris, outside the city of Milly-laForĂŞt, a colossal and enigmatic monster lies hidden in the thick woods. Under the care of Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely and his wife Niki de Saint Phalle, this 75foot, 350 ton giant grew in near secrecy over a span of 30 years. Truly a collaborative installation, Le Cyclope incorporates the work of several of Tinguelyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contemporaries, including Seppi Imhof, Bernhard Luginbuhl, Rico Weber, Niki deSaint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri, Arman, Cesar, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Eva Aeppli, Jesus Rafael Soto and Larry Rivers. While some were involved with the project from the early concept stage, others joined the project mid-stream, allowing the constraints that the half-completed structure presented to inform their site-specific installations. Tinguely and his collective wrested this monumental sculpture out of literally hundreds of tons of new and reclaimed steel, stone, concrete, mirrors, and ceramic mosaic. The complexity of the work resists artistic compartmentalization, with

elements of Dada, New Realism, Kinetic Art, and Art Brut. Beyond the structure’s formidable iron door, a labyrinth of stairs allows visitors to explore the innards of the beast. Inside, the entire thing is like a stage set, with many theatrical elements and moving objects. A series of basketball-sized steel balls run in tracks throughout Le Cyclope, passing over gears and mechanisms along the way, bringing this 350 ton monster to life. As you walk to the back of the beast’s head, you are confronted by his most shocking element. Here, on a pair of tracks cantilevering off of the monster’s skull and towering seventy feet above the forest floor, is a salvaged Polish railroad car used during World War II to carry people to the concentration camps. This painful reminder of the horrors of the holocaust acts as a warning against the monstrous potential of humankind. Completed after Tinguely’s death, this monument to contemporary sculpture acts as a memorial to his vision, while offering specific commemorations to four other artists who passed away during its construction: Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Louise Nevelson, and Kurt Schwitters. This sculpture is a gem, hidden from view, ready to show its many secrets.

E n Tr a v a i l l a n t d a n s l a fo r e t , n o u s Wo r k i n g

the

forest,

dream

revons a une utopie et a une action of a utopia and an action without sans

limite

(c’est

illusoire

b o u n d a r i e s ( i t ’s i l l u s o r y, I k n ow ) , sais) et notre attitude est celle de and our attitude is one of Research la

Recherche

into

Free

l’Acte

and

Gratuit

Non-Utilitarian

Inutile. Et nous sommes tres heureux Acts. And

are

very

happy

comme ca, pourvu que personne ne this, as long as no one prevents us nous empeche de travailler (comme from working (like crazy - it goes des fous - ca va de soi) - Jean Tinguely without

saying)

Jean

Tinguely

Kapoorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leviathan lands Each year the french ministry of culture invites a leading artist to create a work in response to the exceptional architectural space and scale of the Grand Palais in Paris. Originally constructed for the 1900 universal exhibition, the soaring 13,500 m2 central nave of the Grand Palais provides the inspiration for a project idea: Monumenta. This spring, Anish Kapoor unveiled a temporary, site-specific immersive environment. Richie Hawtin, a legendary DJ, was invited for a concert to bring the installation to a close. Prior to the closing party, Kapoor visited his work and engaged in a conversation with Hawtin about art, improvisation, and atmosphere. / conversation with Anish Kapoor and Richie Hawtin transcribed from the Creators Project / photography Jeeeun Ham / Jen Komorowski / Steven Christensen /

@ Grand Palais

Kapoor: I think that is one of the great things about the arts in general, is that they are very good at intimacy. It’s saying come and be part of this, you know, come and take part and it’s absolutely about being invited in to the special place or the special sound, or whatever it is. Hawtin: Living in a world of headphones and speakers and working on ideas that you can’t see, the visual arts have been an incredible godsend or area of inspiration. Being able to stand in front of a painting or to walk around through an installation or around an object gives me a sense of dimension and place for the sonic ideas that I’m working on in the studio. Kapoor: It’s also a really interesting relationship between performing, I mean I see sculpture as a performative, not always but often, as a performative art in a way. It requires the viewer to perform at one level. For me anyway, in the studio it is completely about improvisation. It’s completely about the first

idea is as good as the second idea or maybe better. First idea, best idea. Go for it and it’s that moment! That’s a kind of improvisation in a way. But of course you take that to a different place don’t you? Hawtin: I’m very good at spur of the moment. At that time in the mid-nineties, 95, 96, I was really trying to push my own sound forward and was trying to understand what sounds to use and where to place them in physical space to get the depth that I was looking for. It was around that time I luckily happened upon your work and it gave me a way to kind of physically feel the depth and dimensions that I was trying to reach for sonically. That’s why there was always a really direct connection. Kapoor: I remember that album very very well. I also felt exactly the same. That sense that somehow you had gotten a sound in it that was really really deep. I thought that really very very strong. Kapoor: It is a terrifying space in that that it’s too big, too high and has too much light. That’s a guaranteed killer of things. (Laughs.) I did a very simple thing with it, I made myself a model this big and

when you make a model this big you don’t have to worry about any of those problems. I tried to deal with it conceptually. I’ve been really interested in glove-like forms, forms that are one thing from this end and then another thing as you turn them inside out. That’s just what the piece is trying to do. Hawtin: Many of your pieces have sonic qualities, they’re bending andKapoor: Well you know I’m really interested in concave, negative forms. So a negative form, just because of the nature and the physics of it, does strange things with sound. It focuses sound, first of all. It throws it back at you. Convex forms, you know, sounds bounces off but concave ones concentrate. I like that idea a lot. Not that it’s even been a primary motive of mine but what the eyes do and what the ears do are not that different from each other. They both respond to these sorts of focused moments. Hawtin: You have one great advantage over my situation, you can make a model and do that with an organic or a structure but with sound it would be

very hard for me to put my head in a small model, first of all, or get any kind of idea on how the frequencies are going to bounce around here. And so the same problems, the height and the metallic structure is going to play havoc with certain type of frequencies so that’s what I’m learning today. What I can actually do, what’s going to sound right and also where we’re going to place sound and feel. Kapoor: So tell me are you looking for moments of purity? Are you looking for moments that are singular? Hawtin: There are going to be all these people moving around and hopefully, at certain moments, bridging into that moment where they‘re stop in their tracks, physically, sonically and something wonderful happens. That’s the moment we’re searching for, I hope. Kapoor: I’m sure that at a very simple level, a sonic atmosphere changes the meaning of the thing, however temporarily, but it does change the meaning of the thing, I’m pretty sure it does. I have no doubt that music under blue light is quite different

from music under red light, the same music, I have no doubt. One’s whole sense of where one’s body is, what space one’s mind is in changes through these very simple phenomenal realities. Hawtin: Your work is always physical. Every experience I’ve had with an Anish Kapoor is a sense of bewilderment and losing myself. Whether his pieces are large or small, they play with the sense of dimension and space and for lack of a better word; you kind of get sucked in. Kapoor: I often find that when I go to concerts, if I listen to the piece of music first on a recording, I will either agree or disagree with what’s happening because it will inevitably be different, but there is away in which I’ve kind of made it into my inner world. That’s a really important process and all these electronic media of course give us the huge freedom to become part of other people’s inner worlds. more at thecreatorsproject.com

BASE CAMP BELLEVILLE / TEXT BY JORDAN JOHNSON / PHOTOS BY JORDAN JOHNSON / JEAN LOUIS FARGES /

Clinging to a vertiginous cliff face in the 20th arrondissementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Parc de Belleville is a curious playground. Here, all vestiges of absorbent wood chips, spongy rubber mats, and safety cords have been banished. In place of the friendly, litigation avoidant materials one would expect of a proper childhood concourse, BASE (build a super environment) deploys bare concrete, timber pylons, and shards of steel. Seeing it for the first time makes even well-conditioned urbanites want to immediately don a helmet and knee pads. In the absence of monkey bars and swings, one encounters something that is an abstracted combination of fortress and ship, punctured by hidden tunnels, sound scoops, obstacles, and sudden drops. A network of ropes encourages children to scale an impossibly angled wooden wall. A concealed slide spits them out at top speeds questionably close to a vertical circulation path. BY jORDAN joHNSON//

The result is a space which allows the imagination to wander. No gesture is prescribed. No signage. No warnings. Every surface flexibly conceived for a myriad of possible appropriations. Some slopes are highjacked by parents sunbathing. Others are transformed into imaginary universes for risk-inclined toddlers and tweens. Since its inauguration in 2008, this â&#x201A;Ź1.1 million public project has been flocked. And not a single accident, not even a nosebleed, reported. At the top of the climb there is payoff: a playhouse and an exceptional view of the city. If you squint hard you can imagine a view beyond the banlieu. The architects at B.A.S.E. describe the project as a progressive reconceptualization of public space in the city. In their own words: A large part of the story of urbanism is based on the expression â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;view over the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, allowing the development of new districts associated with urban parks or public garden, spaces of representation open on the city. Nowadays some of these parks deserve to be redesigned, while others are being created through new or urban renewal programs, all of them being adapted to the new contemporary customs in permanent changes. The idea of natural background stands out here as it integrates the entirety of what makes the living world (weather, geography, plants and humans altogether) in a sensitive way in order to introduce lush and progressive spaces. The programmatic dimension plays an important role too. These natural spaces that can stay for a major part undetermined (lawns, afforestations), deserve most of the time some specific and contemporary proposals such as meeting, game or sports amenities catering to a larger audience. They entitle the urban parks as a public and shared space and open the way to what would look just like a landscape. more at baseland.fr

three ports <a photographic essay>

O U R T R AV E L S T H RO U G H N A N T E S , LY O N , A N D M A R S E I L L E G A V E U S T H E C H A N C E T O S E E T H R E E R A D I C A L LY DIFFERENT ANSWERS TO A SINGLE QUESTION: HOW DOES THE CITY RECLAIM ITS URBAN PORT ONCE T H E I N D U S T RY I T O N C E S E R V E D HAS DISAPPEARED?

STILLS / JOE(Y) FILIPPELLI / JENNIFER KO M O ROW S K I / BRIAN M U S CAT / A N YA S I R O T A / J E A N L O U I S FA R G E S /

nantes

The Ile de Nantes is part of a large urban renewal project launched in 1999 under the direction of l a n d s c a p e a r c h i t e c t a n d u r b a n p l a n n e r, A l e x a n d r e C h e m e t o f f. H i s p r o c e s s i s k n o w n a s t h e P l a n G u i d e , a n d is widely regarded as a radically progressive method of responsive urban development. Management of t h e p r o j e c t i s ove r s e e n by S A M OA ( D eve l o p m e n t C o r po r a t i o n o f M e t r o po l i t a n We s t A t l a n t i c ) . S i n c e July 2010 the project has been transfered to a team of architects from Marcel Smets.

Les Anneaux by Daniel Buren and Patrick Bouchain on the bank of the Loire River leading to the Hangar Ă Bananes.

lyon

Ly o n ’ s C o n f l u e n c e i s t h e b i g g e s t u r b a n development project currently under c o n s t r u c t i o n i n Fr a n c e a n d i s a r g u a bl y o n e o f t h e b i g g e s t i n E u r o p e . Wo r k b e g a n i n 2003 and is currently entering its second phase. When completed, the Confluence with m o r e t h a n d o u b l e t h e s i z e o f Ly o n ’ s h i s t o r i c city center with the addition of 370 acres of r e a l e s t a t e . C o o p H i m m e l b ( l ) a u ’s M u s e e d e s Confluences is scheduled to open in 2014.

P h a s e 2 o f t h e Ly o n C o n f l u e n c e p r o j e c t h a s j u s t b e g u n a n d w i l l b e ove r s e e n by l a n d s c a p e r Desvigne and Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron through its completion in 2020.

marseille

Launched in 1995, the EuromediterranĂŠe Program is set on t r a n s fo r m i n g a 7 7 5 - a c r e s w a t h o f M a r s e i l l e i n t o a n ew e c o n o m i c attractor district. The project effectively aims to develop an e n t i r e n ew c i t y w i t h i n M a r s e i l l e . 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 m Â˛ i s e a r m a r k e d fo r n ew a n d r e s t o r e d o f fi c e s i n t h e Jo l i e t t e d i s t r i c t , a t a l o c a t i o n b e t w e e n t h e po r t a n d c i t y c e n t r e . L a B e l l e d e M a i w i l l p r ov i d e t h e l a r g e s t E u r o p e a n a u d i ov i s u a l / m u l t i m e d i a p r e c i n c t i n M a r s e i l l e , where thousands of new homes are under construction, together w i t h a n ew E u r o m e d c o nve n t i o n c e n t e r a n d a m a r i n a .

/ TEXT BY JOE(Y) FILIPPELLI / PHOTOS JEN KOMOROWSKI / BRITTANY GASCY / JEAN LOUIS FARGES /

L E F R E S N O Y, O R HOW TO CROSS OVER THE IN BETWEEN At Le Fresnoy I wanted to extend the notion of crossover by combining old and new. I first decided to keep parts of the old buildings already on the site that were slated to be demolished... The in-between was not composition, it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t design; it was pure concept. - Bernard Tschumi

In the sleepy French suburb of Tourcoing, 20 kilometers north of Lille, a mysterious form hovers tenuously above the rooftops like an alien space craft. This techno-fetishist canopy joins and transforms a defunct complex of century-old buildings into a cutting-edge home for Le Fresnoy, one of Europe’s most elite trans-disciplinary cultural academies.

but to demolish and start from scratch would decimate the unique character of this unusual site. Tschumi’s innovative proposition was to construct a new, hightech “umbrella” over the site, protecting the existing structures while housing new mechanical and electrical systems and producing a unique sequence of partially enclosed spaces for performance and inhabitation.

Originally a 1920s leisure complex, this cluster of buildings offered such pleasures as swimming, skating, cinema, ballroom dancing, and horseback riding. Reskinned and reassembled by Bernard Tschumi, the complex is now home to 8,000 square meters of school, library, sound and video production studios, exhibition space, offices, a bar/restaurant, and apartments. Impressive as this programmatic feat may be, Tschumi’s primary invention at Le Fresnoy is his unconventional approach to the reappropriation of this challenging site.

Tshumi’s grand gesture produces what is essentially a succession of boxes inside a box. Acting as the outer crust, the modern canopy stands independently from the original buildings and provides continuity across the site’s disparate parts. It wraps downward over the northern elevation while leaving the sides open to allow views to the existing context. On the southern elevation, a new façade produces a sense of transparency at the building’s entrance. Beneath the monumentally scaled canopy, the site’s original buildings are minimally restored as hollow containers for program to be inserted within. Newly constructed and autonomous boxes housing the more technically demanding programs are then placed strategically throughout these containers, allowing occupants to move freely between them. The scheme allows a relatively low degree of programmatic density in the original buildings, preserving the sense of scale and openness that they originally possessed.

The relatively out-of-the-way site is actually well-suited to Le Fresnoy’s cosmopolitan aspirations: a mere two hours from Amsterdam and London, one hour from Paris, the city of Tourcoing acts as an unlikely but strategic hub. The fragile state of the site’s existing buildings presented a significant architectural dilemma. A painstaking restoration of the existing buildings would have far exceeded the budget of this fledgling institution,

The “common denominator” in this equation is the interstitial space created under the new roof. It is the space where

the institution’s diverse programs are physically and symbolically united. The emphasis Tschumi puts on the space is explicit: Like a giant tongue, the redcarpeted grand exterior staircase is by far the most dominant characteristic of the front elevation, even trumping the glassy main entrance. Ascending the stairs, you reach a space flooded with light from every direction. Large cloud-like perforations in the new roof cast pools of light on to historic roofs below, adding contrast to the rigid high-tech structural aesthetic. A maze of catwalks, stairs, and platforms allow circulation amongst the aged roof tiles of the existing buildings, while producing spaces for casual interactions, spontaneous performances, or collaborative installations. Tschumi describes Le Fresnoy as “architecture event” rather than an “architecture object”, and the techniques he deploys here render his theoretical approach architecturally explicit. The project is a phenomenal study of interstitial space, and the ways in which architecture can foster chance encounters and spontaneous performance. Simultaneously, Le Fresnoy offers a dramatic and unique case study in the reappropriation of historic sites, demonstrating that an innovative approach to reuse can produce an outcome that is economical, ecological, and magical.

open doors / text by Jeeeun Ham / photography by Peyton Coles / Brittany Gacsy / Jeeeun Ham / Jennifer Komorowski / Christopher Reznich / Jean Louis Farges /

Commune de Paris poster in Belleville.

Demolished lots.

손에 들린 안내 지도도 사실은 필요없다. 사람들이 모여있는 곳으로, 혹은 발 길 닿는데로. 어느 골목이든 조금만 걸으면, 또 다른 어느 예술가의 작업실 이 있다. 파리에서 두달간 지내며 알게된 것. 좁은 골목길, 상점 사이사이 위치한 아파 트 출입문들. 나와 같은 이방인은 애써 찾아보지 않는다면 그냥 스쳐지나가기 십상인, 그들의 삶으로 통하는 문. 파리의 골목길은 실은 많은 아파트들로 채 워져 있지만, 그 뒤로 숨겨진 파리 시민 몇몇의 삶을 상상하기란 어렵다. 외부 인이 보편적 파리시민의 집을 구경하기란 사실 이렇게 어렵다. 온갖 관광명소 사이사이 교묘하게도 자신들만의 공간은 보여주지 않는다. 그런데 평소라면 비밀번호로 굳게 닫혀있을 문들이 살짝 열리는 있는 날이있다. 일년에 단 며 칠. 나도 – 모든 외부인들도 – 파리 시민이 어떻게 살고 있는지 그들의 삶 속

Guide map held in my hand is not really necessary. Just wandering to wherever my foot-steps take me, to places where people gather. Within a short walk, one can find another artists’ studio. After two months in Paris I finally started to notice: mysterious doors to apartment units squeezed between shops on narrow alleyways. Strangers like me could easily miss them, these doors leading to a Parisian’s life. Even though the streets are filled with apartments like these, it is hard to imagine the life hidden behind the doors. Most visitors hardly have an opportunity to take a look at how these average Parisians live in their own space. However, they open their doors to the public just a few days a year, when I – along with the other outsiders – have the opportunity to enter into these spaces and see their lives.

으로 들어가볼 수 있는 기회가 있다.

Passage into Belleville Portes Ouvertes atelier.

이 날이면 벨빌지역의 골목 골목은 Ateliers d’Artists de Bellevill의 하 얀 깃발로 펄럭인다. 어서 자신들의 작업실로 들어와 자신들의 작품 한 번 구 경하라는 표지다. 열려진 문틈으로 들어가 그늘진 통로를 지나면, 놀랍게도 그 곳엔 강렬한 햇살이 내리쬐는 내부정원이 있다. 좁은 골목길 문 밖에서는 상상 할 수 없었던 내부 정원의 따사로운 고요함. 그 곳에서 잠시 멈춰 이 시간 나 에게 주어진 기회를 만끽한다. 그리고 화살표를 따라 어느 예술가의 작업실을 향해, 엘레베이터 대신 계단을 오르는 것이다. 2층이든 3층이든 4층이든. 이 행사가 열리는 벨빌 지역은 파리의 10, 11, 19, 20구에 걸쳐있으며, 많은 이민자들의 거주지다. 또한 세계 각지의 예술가들이 모여 자신들의 작업실 겸 거주지로 삼고 있는 곳이 기도 하다. 그리고 그들은 일년에 한 번 며칠간 자신 들의 작업실을 불특정 다수의 사람들에게 공개하는 이벤트를 주최한다. 아주

On these special days, white flags of Ateliers d’Artists de Belleville - the organization of artists living in Belleville - are fluttering on the alleys. These are the signs that welcome anyone with wondering eyes into their studios. After walking into the door and passing the shad¬ed corridor, I come upon a surprise: a sun-drenched courtyard. I cannot help but pause for a moment there and enjoy this chance to appreciate the tranquility of the small courtyard that one could not expect from the outside. I follow the arrows toward an artist’s studio, skip the elevator; head for the stairs. Second floor, third floor, fourth floor. . . Belleville, where this event is held, is the area that lies in the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissement of Paris, and over time it has become the home to many immigrant families. Likewise, artists have moved here from all over France and

Garden with installation, demolished lot.

아주 개 인적인 공간 - 그들의 작업실을 살펴보는 재미는 의외로 크다. 벨빌 여행기의 막바지는 오히려 그들의 작품에 대한 관심보다 각자 다른 그들의 공 간에 대한 호기심으로 움직였으니. 이 이벤트의 묘미는 지극히 개인적인 작업 공간을 축제의 공간으로 바꾸어버 리는 것이다. 초대된 이들은 벨빌의 골목골목을 마치 거대한 미술관을 거닐듯 자유로이 거닌다. 그러다 어느 마음드는 공간을 발견하면 그 예술가와 잠시 대 화도 나눌 수 있다. 스스로의 거주지를 축제의 장으로 만들어 버리는 이들의 이 자유로운 정신은 벨빌이 끊임없는 변화하는역동적 지역이 되도록 한다.

the world to form an artistic community. And once a year, for a few days, they open their studios to the public, hosting the untold number in their homes. Such highly personal spaces – what an opportunity to be invited inside! While the art is often interesting, the chance to peep into the private residences and studios of the artists is what makes this journey through Belleville irresistible. The excitement of this event is the transformation of the highly personal work space into a public festival place. Like a giant open art museum, the entire city is invited to freely explore the intimate spaces of Belleville. And when you encounter work that captures your interest, you can chat oneon-one with the artist. The free spirit of Belleville, that allows for many private residential/work spaces to be assembled into a single giant art festival, is what makes this one of the most dynamic neighborhoods of Paris.

Residential courtyard with gallery spill over.

Residential courtyard wall.

Shared atelier converted into gallery

Installation detail.

Live work.

Franklin azzi, halle alstom + productive slack / Interview by Brittany Gacsy / photos Brittany Gascy / Jeeeun Ham / Christopher Reznich /

n 2010, the Parisb a s e d f i rm Fra n k i n A z z i Architecture won a competition to transform t h e A l s t o m H a l l e s building

on Ile de Nantes into a new college o f f i n e a r t s, t h e E c o l e s u p é r i e u r e d e s beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole. The winning proposal aims to provide generous pragmatic, productive and residual space for liberal appropriation at m u l t i p l e s c a l e s. A t r a n s p a r e n t envelope framed in steel for ms the unconditioned container for three l eve l s o f n ew p r og r a m . I n s e r t i o n s, or what Franklin Azzi calls a ‘series of organs’, function in both scripted a n d u n d e t e r m i n e d w ay s, p r ov i d i n g plenty of slack for overflow and adaptation. At street level, the building i s e nv i s i o n e d a s p o r o u s, u n b o u n d , i t s circulation following the logic of an urban network reconnecting the

manufacturing district to the new developments and the old city beyond. A hy b r i d F u n - Pa l a c e - s u p e r - s i z e d greenhouse-umbrella, the project has propelled the young pr actice onto France’s national stage. I had the opportunity to talk with Franklin Azzi a b o u t h i s f i r m , f l e x i b i l i t y, m o d u l a r i t y and slack. B G : Yo u r o f f i c e o p e n e d i n 2 0 0 6 a s a o n e m a n s h o p . Fa s t f o r w a r d t o 2 0 1 1 . Yo u ’v e w o n a competition to build a 27,000 m2 art school i n t h e h e a r t o f N a n t e s . Yo u h a v e g r o w n p ra c t i c a l ly ove rn i g h t f ro m a f i rm w i t h t wo employees to a firm with twenty? Has this been a dif ficult transition? FA : I h a v e w o r k e d o n p r o j e c t s o f t h i s s c a l e b e f o r e ; I a m able to handle this type of work. Having worked in large fi r m p r i o r t o s t a r t i n g m y ow n p r a c t i c e [ J e a n N o u ve l ] , I a m f a m i l i a r w i t h p r o j e c t s o f e x c e p t i o n a l s c a l e . To b e hon est, architecture is not simply a m atter of scale. A 200 square meters and a 20,000 square meters project t a k e s t h e s a m e a m o u n t o f i n t e l l i g e n c e a n d e n e r g y. I t is just as complex to work out the idiosyncrasies and r e q u i r e m e n t o f t h e p r o g r a m fo r a l a r g e s c a l e p r o j e c t a s

BG: Now that your fir m is gaining visibility and recognition, do you imagine g rowing even larger in the near future? FA : A l a r g e f i r m o f 2 0 0 p e r s o n s i s a n A m e r i c a n f o r m o f p r a c t i c e . I l i k e t h e s i z e w e a r e n o w, n o t t o o b i g , b u t not too small. At most, I can imagine adding ten more p e o p l e , b u t t h a t ’s i t . A n y m o r e i s w a y t o o m a n y. I w o u l d r a t h e r h ave a fi r m o f t e n s t r o n g p e o p l e t h a n 2 0 0 ave r a g e e m p l o y e e s . I f e e l v e r y c o n f i d e n t i n t h e t e a m I h a v e n o w. I feel we are the right size. This size is the best way to d o a r c h i t e c t u r e. Fi r m s o f 2 0 0 p e r s o n s a r e t o o l a r g e t o d o g o o d a r c h i t e c t u r e . I n e v e r w a n t t o b e t h i s w a y. A t l e a s t , t h i s i s w h a t I a m t e l l i n g y o u n o w. I n t e n y e a r s , w e ’ l l s e e .

B G : Yo u r p r o j e c t i n N a n t e s , E S B A , b e l o n g s to a typological logic – the box within the box, or the conditioned space within the l a r g e r u n c o n d i t i o n e d c o n t a i n e r. H o w d o e s your proposal build on or deviate from its precedents? FA : T h i s p r o j e c t i s a m a t t e r o f e c o n o m i c s . T h e b u i l d i n g s c a l e o f t h e ex i s t i n g s t r u c t u r e w a s t o o l a r g e fo r t h e a r t s c h o o l . We n e e d e d t o t h i n k a b o u t t h i s p r o j e c t e c o l o g i c a l l y, e n v i r o n m e n t a l l y, m a t e r i a l l y a n d , o f c o u r s e , e c o n o m i c a l l y.

We w a n t e d t o k e e p t h e e n t i r e s t r u c t u r e i n t a c t a n d o n l y d e m o l i s h w h a t w a s a b s o l u t e l y n e c e s s a r y. We r e m o v e d t h e extern al concrete façade to allow more light to pen etrate t h e b u i l d i n g . We a l s o i m p l e m e n t e d t h e “ u m b r e l l a l o g i c ” which disassociated the rain envelope from the thermal envelope. The rain envelope consists of transparent polycarbonate and the thermal envelope consisted of two white modern buildings. Of course, the problem with modern or flat-roofed buildings is that they leak. In this inst ance, we can have modern buildings, and we can inhabit their roofscapes and residual spaces because we don’ t have to worr y about the rain. The preexisting structure is not conn ected to the n ew programm atic inser tions. Here the existing structure acts like an umbrella to protect the overarching logic of the whole.

B G : Yo u r A r t s c h o o l p r o j e c t i s i n v e r y c l o s e p r o x i m i t y t o L a c a t o n & Va s s a l ’ s N a n t e s Architecture school, recently completed in 2009. How do the two projects compare? FA : Ve r y d i f f e r e n t . I n t h e c a s e o f t h e a r c h i t e c t u r e s c h o o l , the architects built more program than was needed. They d e s i g n e d e x t r a s p a c e . Wo r k i n g w i t h i n d u s t r i a l r e m n a n t s , we had m uch more space than was programm atically n e c e s s a r y. A n o v e r a b u n d a n c e o f m e t e r s s q u a r e d . A s a

consequence, the space we have design ed is divided into smaller space and becomes increasingly more private as o n e p e n e t r a t e s t h e b u i l d i n g . We h a v e b r o u g h t t h e e x i s t i n g building down to a more interactive, hum an scale.

BG: The ESBA looks e xciting. How does it a n n o u n c e i t s e l f t o t h e c i t y ? I s t h e r e a m a r ke r ? FA : A m a r k e r ? T h e b u i l d i n g i t s e l f i s a m a r k e r. T h e p r o j e c t â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s t r a n s p a r e n c y a l l o w s p e o p l e t o a n i m a t e a n d traverse the building as an urban site. It is the potential fo r m o b i l i t y a n d e n c o u n t e r t h a t d r aw s a t t e n t i o n t o t h e project.

>>more at franklinazzi.com

Halle Alstom. Giant. Luminous. Tagged. Trailers lining an interior wall hint at the coming transformation. According to Azzi, this will be the â&#x20AC;&#x153;neurological centerâ&#x20AC;? on the Ile de Nantes. The project is planned for competion in 2014.

LA VILLA NOAILLES Once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been to the Villa Noailles, you begin to nurture a fantasy of complicity and collusion. You hope to return. You strive to drop the Noailles, and call the place simply the Villa. The Villa, is in the know; you want it in your network. The Villa is a purveyor of discriminating taste and emergent talent. It is a platform that promises an encounter with salient contemporaneity in the

...an undistinguished cubist extravaganza of reinforced concrete set atop a high hill, within the ancient walls of a Saracen fortress. It had been designed in the late twenties by a fashionable architect named MalletStevens, contained something like fifty rooms and was surrounded by a large garden...[The] large salon at Saint-Bernard which had no windows but was lighted from above by a bizarre cubist skylight which occupied almost all the ceiling, adding to the sense of existing outside time in a stranded ocean liner. -James Lord

/ text by Christopher Reznich / photos Christopher Reznich / Jean Louis Farges /

realm of architecture, fashion, photography and design. The Villa seeks out new

accomplices for future impact and stages events around their imminent rise. It is a curious and seductive place. Rarely does a cultural venue so deliberately ensconced in the sensibilities of the Now manifest such careful sympathies in establishing a bond with the Then.

Robert Mallet-Stevens to

build the Villa Noailles in Hyères on the French Riviera. They had mused over design proposals from Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, but chose Mallet Stevens for his crisp geometry, concrete construction, terraces and hanging gardens. It would be the architect’s first realized project, completed in three years. The Armenian artist designed an adjacent cubist garden.

Gabriel Guévréjian

The backstory goes something like this. For the next two decades the Villa served In 1924 Charles and Marie Laure de Noailles, voracious collectors and pioneering as the material fulcrum of European Avant Garde, and the trove of illustrious art patrons, commissioned the architect

91 visitors and friends amassed by Charles and Marie Laure is astounding.

creation, momentum and play. Home to the annual

spent time living or working at the Villa. The Noailles supported film projects by Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel. Man Ray’s film Les Mystères du Château de Dé features the Villa prominently. And they commissioned works by Balthus, Giacometti, Brâncusi, and Dora Maar.

gaining significant force as an international resource for cultural substance, providing multiple occasions for a worthy sojourn to the South of France.

Pablo Design Parade, the Picasso, Georges Braque, Festival International de Joan Miro, Paul Vera, Mode et de Photographie, leading architecture and photography Jean Prouve, Marcel Breuer, and Eileen Gray all exhibits, workshops, conferences, the Villa is

Then the denouement. In 1940 the villa, occupied by the Italian Army, is turned into a hospital. From 1947 until 1970, the villa was the summer residence of MarieLaure. She died in 1970, and the house was purchased by the city of Hyères in 1973. Charles de Noailles died in 1981. Today’s revived Villa, under the direction of , is the logical extension of the original summer retreat, where encounters with the cultural vanguard are intensified. In its current form, the Villa provides space for

Jean-Pierre Blanc

There is also a residency program. In a wing of the Villa called diminutively ‘the petit villa’, curated guests stay in four rooms independently appointed by

François Azambourg, Florence Doléac, David Dubois and Bless.

At the Villa programs are updated, events staged, the site expands and contracts, breathes. Here the contemporary is juxtaposed against the historical narrative, a permanent collection of artifacts and works that represents the treasure troves of distinguished lifetime. However briefly, the visitor joins the alliance with the distinctive past as well as the imminent future.

A bed which functions as an inhabitable pinhole camera is installed in one of the curated guest rooms at the Villa Noailles. Through a tiny opening in the panel facing the window, the guest experiences the projection of an image of the landscape beyond. Dreamy.

digital pleaSure @ LA GAÎTÉ LYRIQUE

/ PHOTOS KYUNG JIN HONG / BRIAN MUSCAT / CHRISTOPHER REZNICH /

MANUELLE GAUTRAND’S CENTER FOR DIGITAL ART AND MUSIC OPENS IN A REFURBISHED THEATER-AMUSEMENT PARK

Transfigurations by Matt Pike & Realise & Simon Pike

The Théâtre de la Gaîté was built on the rue Papin when the company relocated in 1862. In the late 1980s a good portion of the building was demolished to make way for a quickly doomed amusement center. The facade, entryway and foyer were all that remained. In November 2010 the City of Paris completed a digital arts and modern music centre on the site, La Gaîté Lyrique, which restored and incorporated the surviving historic front section of the old building.

TEXT BY ASH THOMAS / PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEEEUN HAM, KYUNG JIN HONG, AND BRIAN MUSCAT

S E E N F R O M T H E Q U I E T R U E V E R C I N G É T O R I X I N T H E F O UR T E E N T H A R R O N D I S S E M E N T, N O T R E D A M E D U T R AVA I L ( O UR L A DY O F L A B O R ) A P P E A R S T O B E A R AT H E R C O N V E N T I O N A L A N D H UM B L E S M A L L PA R I S H C H UR C H . C O N C E A L E D B E H I N D I T ’ S S I M P L E S T O N E FA C A D E , H O W E V E R , L I E S A N I N T E R I O R O F UN P R E C E D E N T E D S T R U C T UR A L I N T R I G U E , A N D A U N I Q U E S T O R Y O F T U R N - O F - T H E - C E N T U R Y A R C H I T E C T U R A L I N G E N U I T Y.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Paris r e g a r d e d i t s e l f a s t h e w o rl d c a p i t a l fo r t e c h n o l o g y and innov ation. Industrialization was moving ahead at full speed, and the city experienced a massive i n f l u x o f w o r k e r s t o fi l l t h e n ew f a c t o r i e s . T h e 1 4 t h a r r o n d i s s e m e n t , n e a r t h e c i t y ’s s o u t h e r n p e r i p h e r y, f e l t t h e i m p a c t o f t h i s n e w i m m i g r a t i o n q u i t e a c u t e l y, a n d s o o n p l a n n i n g b e g a n f o r a n e w church to accommodate these new workers and their families.

The architect of this new church, Jules Astruc, was given an unusual design challenge. It was determin ed that this church should endeavor to m a k e t h e s e n e w f a c t o r y w o r k e r s ‘ f e e l a t h o m e .’ Wo r k e r s d u r i n g t h i s p h a s e o f i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n s aw l i t t l e o f t h e i r r e a l h o m e s ; ex c r u c i a t i n g w o r k schedules ensured that they spent the majority of t h e i r w a k i n g h o u r s i n t h e f a c t o r y. A c c o r d i n g l y, t h e church was constructed using the tectonic language of industrial architecture.

Construction on the new church began in 1896, and Fa t h e r S o u l a n g e - B o d i n w a s a p p o i n t e d t h e p a r i s h priest. As a nod to the working-class parishioners, t h e c h u r c h w a s d e d i c a t e d t o O u r L a d y o f L a b o r.

In plan and section, the church continued to adhere tightly to Catholic convention, with a n ave flanked by two aisles and capped with a Romanesque facade. I t s s t r u c t u r e a n d s u r f a c e s , h o w e v e r, w e r e r e n d e r e d

i n t h e d e l i c a t e e n g i n e e r e d fi l i g r e e o f t u r n - o f the-century ironwork. This was an era in which Paris was frequently flexing its colonial muscles through its numerous Expositions Universelles, and the city was producing temporary architecture at a s c a l e a n d s p e e d n eve r b e fo r e s e e n . T h e s e exposition palaces elev ated the architectural language of the factor y to the cultural sphere. R e m a r k a b l y, N o t r e - D a m e - d u - Tr a v a i l w a s n o t only constructed using the industrial language of these exposition palaces, it reused the actual m aterial of these temporar y event structures. Shoehorned into the relatively petite volume of this traditional Catholic parish church, this productive misuse of the industrial kitof-parts sparks a poignant dialog between the iconography of dogmatic convention and the i c o n o g r a p h y o f m o d e r n i t y.

rue

dénoyez A STREET SLATED FOR DEMOLITION IS THE SCENARIO FOR AN EMERGENT, COLLECTIVE URBANITY. MICHAEL SANDERSON VISITS WITH ROSALIE PAQUEZ AND LYL LUNIK IN THEIR ATELIER ON RUE DÉNOYEZ. ROSALIE PAQUEZ TALKS ABOUT LIFE AND ART ON A STREET IN PERMANENT TRANSFORMATION. / interview Michael Sanderson / photographic essay Michael Sanderson, Brian Muscat + Jean Louis Farges /

109

Tell us a little bit about Rue Dénoyez. Is it a squat? An autonomous street? What are we looking at? This isn’t quite a street, this is a situation. It started as a completely organic process. None of this was planned. None of this was legal. This street was a mix of squatted and commercial spaces. Concerned citizens. The squats were continuously shifting, changing location. And now it has evolved into the urban situation you see. Are you a long time resident? I’ve lived on this street for four and half years. This is our gallery here and our apartment. The street has continuously evolved since we moved here. New residents, new collectives, coalitions, projects have kept developing here over an extended period of time. How is this street organized? It certainly does not resemble many others in the capital. Do you have an agreement with the city? Yes, the residents and businesses owners you see here have signed an agreement with the city hall. The entire street belongs to the city, and it’s been this way for years. Like in other neighborhoods, the city purchases the properties one by one over time in order to ultimately renovate, regenerate, create new urban spaces. So this street is slated for eventual “rehabilitation”, which is another way of saying demolition. And we are here living and working in the interim. We are using the street for our own projects, residences, for our livelihood with the understanding that eventually, all of this will be removed. In the meantime, however, we are interested in integrated art, poetry, collective visions into daily urban life. And this is an ideal place for this sort of collective experimentation. Who determines what the street looks like? Whose aesthetic sensibility is this? We have designed the aesthetic logic of this street collectively. Every organization on the street built a planter, for example. This was part of a small greening the street project. You can see the mosaic planters everywhere, and each one is original, each one is made by a different neighbor. Here is our place. I share it with Marie, who is a painter, and another Marie, a portrait artist. I make costumes for theater pieces. So it is a collective, shared atelier. And sometimes we host events.

Would you say that the street is a collective canvas? Maybe. What we are looking for a way to give value to everyone’s gestures. And we are keen on keeping art in the realm of the approachable, the popular. We do not want to make art too sacred, to unattainable. And, yes, we want to share our creative practice. Is this scenario special to Belleville? Is Belleville’s ornery history and marginal attitude an enabler for this kind of activity? This situation is not indigenous to Belleville. Something like this could take place anywhere. If you have the human energy, the interest, the engagement, the neighbors, the autonomous attitude, this can take place anywhere you like. Is graffiti legal on this street? Yes! For example, this wall is a wall for free expression. It is legal to tag it. Graffiti is completely authorized here. We have the privilege and the authority to tag all the surfaces. Only on Rue Dénoyez is this activity legal. You cannot tag anywhere else. You cannot walk across the street and tag over there. Perhaps you could. You could try. By authorizing graffiti on Rue de Noyer and not elsewhere – is this a form of strategic containment of an otherwise unsavory urban activity? I don’t think so. There are a number of streets like this, where tagging is legal. Do these sites serve as a sponge? Perhaps. But it is bound to spill outside the limits of the street. The engaging part is that this wall is in constant motion. Every day people tag this wall. Sometime the wall changes twice a day. Do all of the neighbors agree with the aesthetic sensibilities of the collective? No. There are lots of people that do not like this grassroots form of urbanism. Is Rue Dénoyez is an economic generator? Sure. The city knows that this is an attractor, but the street is still not a legitimate urban form. The city is still not thrilled, not even comfortable with this form of organization. So even though this is an important urban attractor, it will nonetheless end eventually. This isn’t forever. But it is important to recognize that there is something very powerful when urban situations emerge. What we are witnessing is emergent program – and this program is capable of testing the temperature of the water, understand the parameters and the qualities of the urban site. This way things can change and evolve slowing. This is not fashion. This urbanism is rooted. Slow growing and intense.

june 2011

Pleurotus P. ostreatus The caps may be laterally attached (with no stem). The stem is normally eccentric. The gills are decurrent. The spores are smooth and elongatedcylindrical. Where hyphae meet, they are joined by clamp connections. Not a bracket fungus. Most of the species are monomitic. Pleurotus dryinus can sometimes be dimitic, meaning that it has additional skeletal hyphae, which give it a tougher consistency like bracket fungi. Delicious.

120

COLOCO’S BAGNOLET MUSHROOM FARM / STORY AND PHOTOS BY JENNIFER KOMOROWSKI / ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY CHRISTOPHER REZNICH /

EET COLOCO. THIS PARIS-BASED FIRM UNAPOLOGETICALLY SUBSCRIBES TO THE NOTION THAT SIGNIFICANT SPATIAL OUTCOMES EVOLVE FROM THE BOTTOM UP. INTELLECTUAL AND COLLABORATIVE PROGENY OF GILLES CLEMENT, THE GROUP’S ORGANIZATIONAL PARADIGM PRIVILEGES THE CULTIVATION OF USER-AGENCY AND MAINTAINS THAT PEOPLE PLUS PLANTS SET COLLECTIVE SPACE IN MOTION. WITH TRAINING IN BOTH LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE, COLOCO RESOLUTELY SEES THEIR ROLE AS FACILITATORS. BY GATHERING RESOURCES

123

AND HUMAN INTEREST, THEY SEEK TO PROVIDE A FLEXIBLE PLATFORM ON WHICH LOCAL POPULATIONS MAY DEVELOP AND SHAPE SPACE TO BEST SUIT THEIR NEEDS AND DESIRES OVER TIME. MEET THE MUSHROOMS OF BAGNOLET. IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD JUST BEYOND THE PARISIAN PÉRIPHÉRIQUE, WE FIND AN URBAN MUSHROOM FARM EMBEDDED WITHIN AN OVERGROWN, UNDERCOIFFED PARK. TOWARD THE NORTHWEST EDGE, A DERELICT LITTLE ENCLAVE OF GREENHOUSES, COMPLETE WITH A MINI-CELLAR. THE MAYOR OF BAGNOLET, INITIALLY CONFLATING A SCRUB-DOWN WITH DEMOLITION, HAD THOUGHT TO LEVEL IT. Enter COLOCO with their theory that everything has value; nothing is worth destroying. With minimal investment and resources, COLOCO, in collaboration with a local non-profit organization REC (Resau d’Environements Créatifs) implements the framework to re-activate the site. The collaborative’s role begins with securing and preparing the infrastructure - here the greenhouse and grotto-esque bunker. Next comes the social network. Interest is gathered and one hundred residents each invest 20 euros in exchange for a share in output. Shareholders maintain the site, care for the mushrooms, and reap their crop every two weeks. Although the project is primarily self-sustaining, COLOCO remains an active, enthusiastic participant on-site, working alongside the members of the community. A neglected landscape has become an activated site of production and social intersection.

this page from bottom (1)all are welcome to participate: local retirees, the underemployed, even visiting university students (2)entry to the mini mushroom grotto (3)adjacent housing and garden patches opposite page from bottom (1)interior of greehouse (2)greenhouse complex

124 COLOCO operates with the similar tactics at larger scales, continuing to empower the user in public space. In collaboration with the CENTQUATRE, a cultural center in the 19th arrondissement, COLOCO stages an event that draws individuals from every corner of Paris. By mapping a route, COLOCO crafts a parade that weaves through neighborhoods of Paris with its final destination at CENTQUATRE. At each stop, residents aggregate and continue along the procession, carting a plant along with them. Upon arrival at CENTQUATRE, all nomadic vegetation is planted, establishing a new community greenspace. At the global scale, COLOCO has collaborated with OMA in creating a masterplan for Bordeaux, France. Exploiting the presence of the high-speed rail and Bordeauxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classification as a UNESCO site of world heritage, the effort seeks to establish Bordeaux as one of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading cities. The present site condition is characterized by the existence of fragmented program. Instead of creating massive quantities of new structure to consume vacant space, the voids are embraced as zones that may be activated by the public, which will form a connective tissue to the city. Despite being a multi-million dollar project, COLOCO manages to maintain their ambition to ensure that the ordinary user remains an agent of determinacy in the spatial consequences of their projects. more at coloco.org

this page from bottom (1)Nicolas Bonnenfant, one of the founding partners of COLOCO, working in collaboration with REC surveys the first mushroom harvest. Bonnenfant is a founding partner of COLOCO with Miguel Georgieff, Pablo Georgieff. (2)working in the grotto opposite page from bottom first harvest complete

STILLS: VIRGINIA BLACK, PEYTON COLES, JEEEUN HAM, JENNIFER KOMOROWSKI + STEVEN CHRISTENSEN DIAGRAMS: VIRGINIA BLACK + CHRIS REZNICH

rgb Team Meta-Friche infiltrates a VJ festival and trade show in Menilmontant to see how the best and brightest in the mapping sphere are using video projection to transform our perception of space. Alongside interactive displays of the newest 5-figure live editing equipment, a group of young hackers build their own

diy equipment on-the-scene for the cost of a Value Meal at McDo. Virginia Black and Chris Reznich show us how itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done.

parts

green plug caps [x2]

green receivers [x2]

red plug caps [x2]

red receivers [x2]

blue plug caps [x2]

blue receivers [x2]

washers [x6]

bolts [x6]

plugs [x6]

saturation dials [x3]

cut open cord

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4

Carefully cut the exterior layer of plastic on the cord around the circumference. Measure 8 inches down and cut the cord in the same manner. Slit the section of the cord between those two cuts longitudinally Peel off the exterior layer of the cut piece.

expose wires

Peel back all of the exterior layers until the 3 main RGB wires are exposed.

snip

3.1 Isolate the R wire, snip and strip to create to bare ends. 3.2 Locate the input side.

solder to saturation dials

Solder the end of the R wire to a switch. Solder the end of one of the black cords to the other end of the switch. Repeat steps 1.1 and 1.2 for G and B cables. Wrap soldered connections with electrical tape.

insert receivers

Place receivers in top side of box lid.

insert saturation dials

6.1 Place dials on the underside of the box lid. 6.2 Tighten with the washer and bolt.

connect saturation dial to receiver

7.1 Solder the other end of the black cable to the receivers. 7.2 Wrap soldered connections with electrical tape.

connect receiver and output cords

solder

10.1 Solder cable ends to plugs and twist caps on. 10.2 Repeat for G and B cables.

connect and play!

8.1 Solder RGB cable ends to the other receivers. 8.2 Wrap soldered connections with electrical tape.

put it together

Place lid on top of box.

11.1 Turn the saturation dials to manipulate RGB values. 11.2 Disconnect the plugs to disconnect a color channel. 11.3 Mix plugs to switch color channels and values.

LOMAS DE ROLEX SANAA’S ROLLING INTERIOR / TEXT BY KYUNG JIN HONG / PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEEEUN HAM / KYUNG JIN HONG / MICHAEL SANDERSON / JEAN LOUIS FARGES / At the Rolex Learning Center designed by SANAA, the building and its users coexist. Intimately. The center has a program. It is purposeful. Yet it’s rolling interior landscape is transformative. Pliable. Suggestive. Not mandated. Hills stand in for floors. Here you can climb. Rest, sleep, meet. The building is divided softly, asking its users to act and think differently. Some students are oblivious to the interior landscape. They use chairs, tables, benches, they do the predictable: study, eat and read. Others play card games on a secluded hill. Other sleep on the undulating landscape. Malleable space beyond the imagination.

Les Frigos cold storage in the 13th arrondissement. Story by Melissa Bonfil / Virginia Black Photography by Peyton Coles / Jeeeun Ham / KyungJin Hong / Chris Reznich

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W H AT S TA R T E D A S A BU I L D I N G I N W H I C H P RO D U C T S W E R E S TO R E D I S N OW I T S E L F A S PA C E O F P R O D U C T I O N . I t s s u r f a c e s e n t i r e l y c ove r e d w i t h g r a f fi t i a r t , t h i s h u l k i n g concrete mass cannot be compared to anything else seen in the h e a r t o f t h e c i t y o f P a r i s . ‘ L e s - Fr i g o s ’ , t r a n s l a t e d i n E n g l i s h as ‘The Refrigerators’, is located in the 13th arrondissement and was originally constructed in the year 1920 as a place t o s t o r e t e m p o r a r i l y f r o z e n m e a t a n d fi s h , c o o l i n g t h e m d ow n b e fo r e t h e i r fi n a l s t o r a g e. This building was decommissioned and abandoned in the 6 0 s , l e av i n g t h e s p a c e u n u s e d fo r fi f t e e n ye a r s . I n 1 9 8 0 , t h e p r o p e r t y o w n e r, S N C F ( t h e N a t i o n a l R a i l C o m p a n y ) , a l l owe d t h e l e a s e o f t h e d e s o l a t e d r o o m s t o fi f t e e n artists who invested in this friche space because of its incredible thermal and sound insulation. By signing this leasing contract, the artists accepted to fund a l l t h e t r a n s fo r m a t i o n s a n d r e n ov a t i o n s t h e y w o u l d m ake. During this time, the development of the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) was t aking place. New b u i l d i n g s w e r e b e i n g c o n s t r u c t e d a n d L e s - Fr i g o s d i d n o t fi t i n w i t h t h e s u r r o u n d i n g ex p e c t a t i o n ; t h e r e fo r e, t h e p r o p o s a l o f a p o s s i b l e d e m o l i t i o n was announced. In 1992, Jean-Paul Reti, Paolo Calia, and Jean-Rene de Fleurieu started the APLD organization, whose m ain goal is to prevent the destruction of the site and the relocation of the ten ants. After a labored debate between the city and its tenants, the destruction o f L e s - Fr i g o s w a s a v e r t e d t h a n k s t o t h e A P L D 9 1 a n d t h e Te n a n t s A s s o c i a t i o n . Since then, the building has become a h i g h l y d e s i r a b l e s p a c e fo r c r e a t i o n a n d p r o d u c t i o n . M o d i fi c a t i o n s h a d t o b e m a d e i n o r d e r fo r t h e n ew program to have an adequate space. T h e b u i l d i n g ’s m a i n m a t e r i a l s a r e c o n c r e t e a n d b r i c k . T h e t w o - fo o t thick walls provide sound and heat insulation that are very a p p r o p r i a t e fo r t h e n ew u s e o f the program, since the artists can work without worrying that

FRIGOS TENANT AND ARTIST JEANPA U L R E T I I N V I T E D U S I N T O H I S P R I VAT E S T U D I O F O R A N I N T E R V I E W A N D A G L I M P S E AT H I S W O R K .

any noise will disturb neighbors, making the mix of editors, entrepreneurs, and artists very successful. Because the original building was dark and completely isolated from the outside, ex t e r i o r w a l l s we r e p e r fo r a t e d t o a l l ow fo r n ew w i n d ow s t o b e built, and walls were decorated by the artists. Proper ventilation, heating, electricity and sanitation we r e a p p l i e d i n o r d e r fo r t h e artists and entrepreneurs to use their n ew studios. T h e b u i l d i n g p l a n , s h a p e d l i k e a n ‘ L’ , can be entered from the parking lot into the corner of the L. Motorbikes and bicycles line this porch area w h e r e s m o k e r s c o n g r e g a t e fo r s h o r t conversations, as there is no real interior lobby space or community gathering space from this point inward. At one end of the two perpendicular corridors, there is a loading d o c k fo r h e av y a n d l a r g e o b j e c t s t o e n t e r t h e bottom floor gallery spaces, where they then can be transpor ted via freight elev ator to the other floors. At each level of the plan, there i s o n e l o n g a n d o n e s h o r t c o r r i d o r, e a c h l i n e d with studio spaces. These spaces are highly insulated and fairly isolated from on e another; as a response, the ten ants suppor t an open-door culture of exploration and comm unication in o r d e r t o fo s t e r a s e n s e o f c o m m u n i t y w i t h i n a n architecture that may otherwise seem quite cold. O n t h e b a c k s i d e o f t h e b u i l d i n g , t h e r e a r e aw n i n g s a n d g a r d e n s t h a t a r e t a k e n c a r e o f b y t h e c o m m u n i t y. T h e s e s p a c e s p r ov i d e m o r e a r e a fo r r e s p i t e a n d s o c i a l i n t e r a c t i o n fo r t h e a r t i s t s . T h e p r o c e s s o f r e a p p r o p r i a t i n g L e s Fr i g o s b r o u g h t t h e artists together and created a close community within the building. It is now known as the ‘seed of future life in the neighborhood’, and it is the artistic center of the development plan of the Rive Gauche.

EDOUARD FRANĂ&#x2021;OIS / PHOTOGRAPHY BY JORDAN JOHNSON + JEN KOMOROWSKI /

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EDOUARD FRANĂ&#x2021;OIS. His work, a collection of heightened idiosyncrasies couple autonomy with interdisciplinarity, self-reflection with provocation, landscape with surface, context with graphics, libertarianism with ecology, to name but a few seemingly contradictory alignments. His projects require a playful new vocabulary, though the content is quite serious, perhaps unabashedly earnest. One look at the models that abound in the office and any criticism of choreographed duplicity is evaporated. The delirium he advocates is unaffected. The buildings are the models in direct translation. No snake oil. The project here, ultimately, boils down to a phenomenological appreciation of liberty in all its material guises. >> more at edouardfrancois.com

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CATIE TRUONG fi in the numerous g that line the P Enough so that s leave a mark of give us a t aste of street art.

meta tag STORY BY CATIE TRUONG / PHOTOGRAPHY BY MELISSA BONFIL

nds inspiration graffiti murals Paris streets. she decides to her own, and the frisson of CATIE TRUONG finds inspiration in the numerous graffiti murals that line the Paris streets. Enough so that she decides to leave a mark of her own, and give us a t aste of the frisson of street art.

Paris is a city that thrives on tourism. The streets are infested with camera carr ying, fanny pack wearing, stroller pushing, souvenir purchasing families, enthusiasts and artists from all walks of life. Spending two months in the city is cert ainly not enough time to experience all that this city has to offer, but it was enough time for me to realize that graffiti is an art form that splashes the nooks and crannies of Paris. Ever y wall becomes a blank canvas. Ever y bridge becomes an autograph book. Ever y abandoned building begs to be t agged. In a city, so rich in histor y, so heavily traveled, graffiti is a sight that may go unnoticed by your average tourist. If you ask a tourist what they want to accomplish in their visit to Paris, you will likely get a st andard and predict able response. “I want to climb the Eiffel Tower.” “I’d like to attend mass at Notre Dame.” “I want to spend a day at the Louvre.” “I’d like to not get my wallet stolen.” The list goes on and on. While I had these items on my own

“To Do List,” “I want to t ag Paris” was also on there. An unexpected response I gathered as I told others about my goal. As I continued to tour France, I was not surprised that I was borderline obsessed with the graffiti. There are many areas of Paris that are dripping with the fresh paint of a recent t ag. Belleville is perhaps one of the most well known of these areas. Rue Denoyez bares the mark of the infamous graffiti artist known as the Space Invader. As you walk past the street, your eyes will likely follow the path of color along the art-stricken walls that change almost daily. What was once an ordinar y alleyway in a miniscule part of Paris is now an attraction. Owners of the buildings that line the alley have an underst anding that it is a force to be reckoned with. If any thing, it helps business by attracting unlikely consumers. Ever y year, this area of Belleville hosts a festival in which artists living in the area open their studios to the public and artists are welcome to bring their cans of spray paint and their freshest designs for a public art-in-real-time event. Attending this spect acle was like no other event I had been to. I was captivated by the process; I watched artists

create fant astic murals on the walls of Rue Denoyez. A photograph cannot simply capture the creative process that unfolded before my eyes that day. Among the many photographs t aken that day, the brief thought streamed through my mind and slowly advanced into a goal. As I watched with astonishment, the desire to know what it felt like to perform such a production washed over me. I wanted to use a wall as my blank canvas. I wanted my mark to be seen, if only for a day. In determining my interests for this article, I could not suggest any Met a Friche site that was not covered in graffiti. Much to my dismay, I could not suggest a site that was not being covered by someone else in this magazine. As the conversation for this article progressed, my goal of t agging became known. This was the topic of my article; I was going to t ag Paris. This goal had the alternative fate of becoming just another one of those things that I say but never actually act upon. Not this time; I had to do it “for the sake of the ‘zine!” The actual thought of doing it, and I mean the ACTUAL thought, was exciting but also extremely scar y to me at the same time. I am not a risk t aker, so the more I thought

about it, the more trouble I convinced myself I would be in and I began to not want to do it. I had to t ake the first step though; I had to plan the what and the where and I had to buy the supplies or else it was never going to happen. I had two cans of spray paint in my possession before I decided I needed to make a move; I was running out of time. I had planned on going the safer route and decided that it was going to happen in a fenced construction site ver y near to my apartment for safe escape. However, as mentioned earlier, Bellville is known for graffiti; squatters t ag the area day and night without trouble. Photos of the area are potentially t aken as often as other landmarks about Paris. Low risk and high exposure seemed to convince me that this was actually the perfect place to t ag. As for the t ag itself, I had no clue. I doodle a lot even when I should not. I feel like I draw block letters daily. What seemed to be a small det ail became a difficult t ask. It was stressing me out to think about the permanent, yet impermanent mark that I was about to illegally put on a wall. At some point though, it really did not matter. The t ag would be covered up by another t ag

in potentially a matter of hours anyway. So I drew a few random cartoons and after some encouraging words, chose a sketch. Because I had waited so long on account of my cowardliness, I was left to perform this t agging on the last full day that I would be in Paris. With the spray cans in my bag and the napkin sketch in hand, I sat on the Metro mustering up the courage to spray. When I arrived, and walked down Rue Denoyez, it was empty. it was nine o’clock in the morning. Life in Paris appears to bustle in the later morning hours. It was early but at this hour, it was not unbearably hot yet, it was perfect.

As I reached the end of the street and approached the parking lot I had chosen, I tried to find the most suit able area. The area that I wanted to spray just happened to be occupied with sleeping squatters. I wanted the cover of the wall to shield me in the even that a van of police should so happen to drive by and see an American performing an illegal act. This was no longer an option; the area was claimed. My anxiety was climbing but the import ance of me completing this prevailed. As close to the shielded corner and as far away from the street as I could get, I took the caps off of the cans and decided I needed to stop worr ying and st art doing.

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I picked a decent area and went for it. Mid-way through the process, a local studio owner came over with a smile on his face and simply asked, “you know that is illegal right?”

I did not use much of the paint at all and I felt that I should t ag more. I t agged a few more times and ever y consecutive t ag was closer and closer to the street.

I was inclined to stop and run but I smiled back and responded, “am I going to be arrested?”

By the end, I was fearless. The cans were virtually empty and the wall was now covered in my t ags of teal and green. I put the cans down, snapped a few pictures and went on my way.

“No, there is no trouble here,” he says as he laughs and looks around with his arms open to the graffiti covered lot as if to say, “look around, you fool.” I was relieved by this conversation and I carried on. Three minutes later, my napkin sketch was on the wall. I held the cans and I stood back in admiration. Shaking the cans,

Mission accomplished; I t agged Paris. I can cross it off my list. I have contributed to the street art of Paris.

//ct//

A f t e r a v i s i t t o s eve r a l o f D o m i n i q u e J a ko b a n d B r e n d a n M a c Fa r l a n e ’s p r o j e c t s i n P a r i s a n d Ly o n , w e s t o p b y t h e i r R u e d e s P e t i t e s É c u r i e s s t u d i o t o s e e w h a t t h ey h ave o n t h e b o a r d s .

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P H O T O G R A P H Y: J O R D A N J O H N S O N , J E N K O M O R O W S K I , B R I A N M U S C A T, C H R I S T O P H E R R E Z N I C H AND STEVEN CHRISTENSEN

M A C FA R L A N E

DOCKS EN SEINE A new skin of chartreuse steel and glass is grafted onto this 1907 depot structure to produce a new home fo r t h e p r e s t i gi o u s I n s t i t u t Fr a n รง a i s d e l a M o d e .

R E S TA U R A N T G E O R G E S / P I N K B A R A l u m i n u m fo r m i n g t e c h n i q u e s w e r e b o r r ow e d f r o m t h e aerospace industry in order to produce the doubly curved s u r f a c e s o f t h i s r e s t a u r a n t a n d b a r i n t h e C e n t r e Po m p i do u

100 LOGEMENTS SOCIAUX PLA ET PLI T h e m o d e r n i s t a p a r t m e n t bl o c k i s r e p l a c e d by a s e r i e s o f fo r m a l l y vague mounds at this social housing community in Paris.

R B C S H OW RO O M An undulating wall frames objects of desire i n t h i s h i g h - e n d f u r n i t u r e s t o r e i n Ly o n

LE CUBE ORANGE Strategically located in the redeveloped port district near t h e t i p o f Ly o n ’ s p r e s q u e î l e , t h i s p h o s p h o r e s c e n t o f f i c e bl o c k u s e s a m o n u m e n t a l a i r s c o o p fo r p a s s i ve ve n t i l a t i o n .

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