I'm David Levin associate professor of architecture at the School of constructed environments here at Parsons and partner of the architecture firm Levin Betts is my pleasure to welcome everyone here tonight to Parsons and to the architectural League of New York's first lecture in the fall current works series a lecture by Anne locket oh and jean-philippe vassal of the Paris architecture firm la Couture and vassal an injunctive succinctly explain that their international practice focuses on public buildings housing and urban planning and in their work they modestly state that they prioritize generosity economy and human occupation but I would add that they also foreground inhabitants rights to light and air and pleasurable space as well as innovative design the architectural league's current work series presents lectures by leading figures in the in the worlds of architecture urbanism design and art and this fall includes lecture lectures by James Kieran and Stephen Timberlake gen K and Deborah Burke the list of speakers both past and current can be viewed on the league's website arch league org the league's programs are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council the New York State Council on the arts with the support of Governor Andrew M Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts League programs are additionally made possible by ongoing support of League members thanks is due this evening to the Dean of the School of constructed environments Robert Kirkbride for making this event possible and to the league for bringing and and jump the leap here for this talk tonight and before I tell you briefly about and John Philippe's credentials I'd like to put in a plug for a housing symposium that Andy bernheimer sitting in the front row here and are hosting in the Kellan auditorium here at Parsons on October 12th and 13th called housing left right and center the symposium will bring together architects from across the country who are committed to bringing high levels of design to the creation of affordable dignified housing and Lockett owned studied architecture at the School of Architecture in Bert Bordeaux and received her diploma in urban planning at the University of Bordeaux she has been a visiting professor at the University of Madrid in housing since 2007 and has also taught at such schools as the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne the University of Florida the State University of New York and Buffalo Harvard Graduate School of Design and the 8a ha in Zurich jean-philippe also studied architecture in Bordeaux and worked as an urban planner in Niger West Africa he is taught at the university Tate their kunst in Berlin since 2012 and has been a visiting professor at the Technical University in Delft the Peter Behrens School of Architecture in Dusseldorf and the Ecole Polytechnique as well in Lausanne among others and Ann and John Philippe's work has been recognized in the form of numerous awards a list too long to recite but includes the Lifetime Achievement Award award from the tree in all of Lisbon in 2016 the gold medal from the Academy Darcy Tector in Paris in 2016 and the living places award from the Simone and Mies van der Rohe Foundation also in 2016 their work has also been published widely again too many publications to lists including monographs by such prestigious publications as El Croce in 2015 the Japanese publication a + u in 2012 and three monographs by the barcelona-based publication - G in a series of terms that they call attitude Annan John Philip chart a course for action for their practice they state that quote the architecture will be direct useful precise economic free joyful poetic and cosmopolitan unquote this statement and their work on such important housing projects as the tour wallop retro and CTA degrom Park Bordeaux have served as touchstones in the housing studio that Andy bernheimer and I have taught here at Parsons for the past five years our studio most often focused on the issues of affordable dignified housing in the extensive portfolio of the New York City Housing Authority has found inspiration in the lines of inquiry in an engine for that prioritizes the reuse and rethinking of existing well-functioning buildings of the design of dignified housing and of design as a vehicle through which to address pressing social concerns aside from the fabulous expanded skin projects of toward wallop retro and CTE Grant Park one of my favorite projects of Ann and John Phillips is the Contemporary Art Center in the nord-pas-de-calais region in Dunkirk the building and I hope that they will present it tonight happens to not be housing but extends their approach of the reuse of existing structures and creates the reuse of existing structures to contemporary public art programs excuse me the project doubles an existing former shipbuilding workshop and creates and integrates an open glowing flexible mirror of its forebear aligning with N and John Philippe's mission to quote generate the city based on the addition of acts of precision unquote and quote after should always be better than before unquote these are also their words from their practices course of action which is quite impressive so for this incredible body of work this approach to architecture as both a social and a design based art for providing our housing studio with excellent precedents to learn from and for coming to talk to us tonight we thank you after Ann and John Philippe's presentation we look forward to a discussion moderated by the architectural league's executive director Rosalie Jeannette Rowe please join me in welcoming and Lockett own and Jean Philippe LaSalle [Applause] thank you very much for first for the invitation it's my second time here the for the architectural league the first one was a very long time ago more than maybe 15 years or something like that and thank you for your very nice introduction so we are very pleased and happy to present our ideas and our work that we are doing together since many years and to start the presentation just and and presented in general our ideas some some some words buildings are beautiful when people feel well in them when the light inside is beautiful and the air is pleasant when the exchange with the outside seems easy and gentle and when uses and sensations are unexpected far beyond any aesthetic and formal determination and far beyond the rules standards and programs the freedom of use the capacity of space the flexibility to give importance and place to people and uses to appropriation the important qualities we aim in designing the projects we think important today to design an architecture that challenges conventional answers that is free from constraints and that is based on construction or intelligence good sense and creativity generosity and freedom the place which is open to freedom of use to appropriation and improvisation to achieve these goals our design approach is based on some major principles generosity of space extra space double space in order to facilitate multiplicity of uses and appropriation this is our idea of therefore we defined in terms of generosity freedom of use and pleasure the use of efficient systems of construction like open structure prefabricated structures which generate efficiently i capacity the same cost and fast built what we are looking for in designing project is extra space that we are looking for the economy is also important to spend less and better economies a key point on the contrary of being a constraint economy allows positive maximum easy maximization of budget allows making more for the same budget allows to reach for what is essential to set priorities spending less and better is sustainable a UH climatic concept which means a maximum use of the natural resources of climates the sunlight ventilation for natural comfort and energy-saving we use especially spaces like Winter Gardens which are not only climatic space but also space of use in addition of the space of inhabiting the automatic space and though the users responsibility through simple gesture the importance and the value of the existing the reuse transformation to reinvent from the existing is for us the opportunity for the sustainable development of the cities never create constraint of use to give place for people and uses to allow the users creativity a process of design of designing from the inside out we always start the design from the interior to sync the project at this position of the user moving from a space to another we design architecture as an addition of space of atmospheres of relations and then the dialogue and participation to allow the discussion and adjustment to fit with program and expectations and to involve users training and responsibilities since the beginning our design approach has been supported by these principles with the idea that is necessary to return to the simple to the fundamental to the essential the concept of inhabiting is for us a fundamental is false fundamental in architecture inhabiting refers to the pleasure to generosity and freedom of occupying the space beyond the functional in a beating give place to people and to uses dwelling should have the same facilities as a villa is something very important in designing housing so what means a same facility as a villa this is compared compared to the situation of the standard housing which is always a very small space like here the standard that we have in in Europe for dwelling for two bedroom sixty to sixty-five we think that the the living space should have additional private spaces like with the gardens terraces balconies and we aim to design as much extra space as program space at the minimum plus 50% of additional space then dwelling as Villa is also about the free DT and the mobility in a standard sorry in the standard house there is always one way to go from one room to another one the extra space allows to extend mobility and freedom of use all the rooms should have large doors opening to outside to give a facility to move not only from the interior but also from the exterior space to a room to another room it's to another room it's what makes for us the quality of living in a villa than the use of open structure instead of building with very rigid bearing walls we like to use the principle of open structure built with ground floors large span that allowed to free the facades only a few columns which allow the flexibility the adaptability and it also a very economical construction because we can use also standard prefabricated the structure so this allows most of the time to build for the house for housing at the same cost twice more with such structures then the climate and energy saving instead of using the principle of insulation we prefer to create this insulation through an intermediate space a temperate intermediate space that is created by the principle of winter gardens and that summarize all this idea of free DT mobility openness facility of move which for us characterized Villa and this also interesting efficiency in terms of passive energy system and at the same time it creates this extra space for use so that was building like a villa building a house dwelling like a villa was our intention when we design a long time ago how a first house this is the we built it something like 20 1992 and our aim for this family was to break the standard and to provide the family with generous and pleasant space to live in spite of the small budget for the same budget they could expect a small house of 60 square meters 70 square meters and our goal was to double the surface for living compared to the standard and to create an extra space as big as a traditional space so we were also involved in designing bioclimatic house which would take maximum benefit of the natural elements especially the Sun and natural ventilation and we use for that very simple system of construction as well as we have been inspired by the technology of the agricultural greenhouses to create such space oriented on East that is a very very efficient space to create a good climate compared to the climate outside but also this very interesting volume connected to the house too to extend the living room so we use the same we worked with the same ideas for this social housing program that we built in 2005 and for 414 rented dwellings this was part of a much bigger project of with four other architects and the Commission was to reinvent in the middle of this worker city which was built in in the middle of the nineteenth century to reinvent the idea of contemporary social housing so we we were free to propose any idea but he only the only condition and the only requirement of the owner was that we work with budget which is subsidized by the government for building social housing it means something like seventy five thousand euros something like 80,000 80,000 dollars to build house dwelling for a family of two or three to four persons so here again we we tried to see how it was possible to build larger without expanding the budget and we used he especially the technology of greenhouses like the space which we had really studied carefully and we observed that it was not only a very nice space but very clever and very intelligent in the way to manage natural climate with a very great precision because the growing growing flowers for the market of vegetable as a high importance and the high value for the farmers so they they must be able to control in in great exactitude the climate inside so we propose to use this technology in addition to concrete open structure and to build these those two levels the ground floor which is big covered by a big concrete platform with only a few columns to support it prefabricated structure and on top three rows of greenhouses exactly the same that we can find on the countryside so that's a system constructing system provided the the biggest volume that we could do on the place at the maximum of the limit of the construction and the the allowed height and then inside we could we built with structure like a very big loft and after the work was out to defer to divided in fourteen houses and this is a final result with this two different level the ground floor and the first floor so the the constructing system which is simple efficient and very economical but provides also interesting space because the efficiency must be given to the service of a nice living space so that that's allowed to create this different atmosphere and condition of space a ground flow and the first floor under the the greenhouses that was realized by some wooden insulated boxes to extend the living space and then we decided that every dwelling should have both conditions of space of ground flow and first floor and that gave this division of the the the plan of the big volume that we have created with every time every dwelling at two levels sometimes it's a its peak on ground flow and small on first floor and the neighbor is says the opposite and we just determined in dimension for the facade of the living room which should be around six meters wide and three meters for the bedrooms so in terms of representation that was the representation of what could be one dwelling with a ground-floor year era and the the first floor space under the greenhouses and then we we discussed with the new owner this was a very important discussion about the relationship between the rent and demand the the surface of the dwelling because normally the rent is determining function of the rent at the moment we were providing in the same budget to us twice more square meters it was important that the rent should not be increased twice time more because if not it could not be any more social housing so that was an interesting discussion but the owner agreed very fast that if we built the project in for the same cost he will not change the rent and he will rent the the 130 square meters at the same cost at the same rent as the 70 square meters so that is one of the the dwelling in which the garage which is also like a room that could be transformed very fast and the first floor which is a large living room connected with a large with no partitions and the partitions have been made by the inhabitants themselves and this large winter garden which is connected to the living room and as the dwelling was 4-bedroom dwellings was 187 square meters instead of one of the square meters of the standard and again same cost of construction and the same rent so this is this do a link so the ground floor was two bedrooms and the first floor was a large living room of 60 square meters which is which has an extra space of and also 60 square meters with this winter garden so just a few pictures for that the the owner was very happy with the result and as well as the inhabitants and then we we did a second project with the same old owner which is a public public social housing company but in this case it was a more dense conditions with Moors with five levels and it was interesting to see how we could develop this idea of extending the space making dwellings as a villa in a more dense situation and we arrived to make the same machine plan it's not the same organization but we arrived to make also in this condition dwellings like villas with also a very large surface much twice bigger than the standard this question of extending the the space this question of inhabiting can be repeated for all programs in fact in fact we inhabit the city so we start from our bathroom where a bedroom or living room but then we it's happens in the street in the public space in the libraries in the schools of architectures inhabiting because we pass a lot of time in this spaces of this question of pleasure of inhabiting is extremely important so here in not the the new school of architecture takes place in the center of the city in the island which was a former hub or former industrial space and we are we're lucky to to take to have this possibility for the school to be there so here again we were thinking that the School of Architecture should create double space and programming space and the relations to the outside so precisely the proximity of the river what is the school of architecture we were thinking that the school of architecture was the biggest office of architecture in the city the place where you have all the energy of the students all the knowledge of the professors all the information in the archives all the energy of the diploma presentations but and was that the bookshelf that could be opened for the inhabitants a space where you could invite on other schools for workshops a space where you can have some art exhibitions a space where you can have some representation of theater the place where you can have concerts the place of culture a place of debate a place of discussion about all what concerns the city inside inside the school and all the school can participate to this so it's not only a school of architecture it is a platform of discussion about culture inside the city so for that also it means that the space has to be extended not only the program but also what is can be considered around space of foreign vacation collaboration exhibitions events music etc etc workshops etc so a platform of discussion and we were thinking that in this old place where the harbour was in fact the first project could have been a sort of industrial building or that could have been done perhaps 50 years before so we try to imagine this building could have been there before and in fact it is this idea to extend the space the budget for the school of architecture for a program of 10,000 square meters was about 16 million euro so the question for us it was not only to make ten thousand kilometers but to provide twenty thousand square meters for the school and including the outside space thirty thousand square meters of floor for creating this capacity of this platform so the building is extremely efficient extremely economic in order to create exactly these dimensions this capacity in the same budget so for that we create a sort of first building sort of industrial building with with three different levels the first one 9 meters high from the ground floor second one 7 meters higher and the third one which is also the roof Simon meters higher each of these floors as a capacity of one tone by square meter so much higher than what is normally demanded for the program and here it is a natural ground of the city which is highly compacted in order to have a different nature than the artificial rules both a ramp a sort of street which is sometimes between 8 meters to 5 meters large gives the possibility for pedestrians for bikes but also for cars to go from the ground floor to the first level to the second level and then to the roof considered as a sort of large Agora so a very high rubbished system with a grid of 10 meters by 10 meters using only component systems of standardised elements columns beams and floors with an extremely fast system of construction nearly 300 square meters by day which makes this construction extremely efficient extremely robust but also very economic all the space of the parcel is taken there is no places left so we take maximum of the dimension of the parcel and the maximum of the height it was permitted by the regulation offered the maximum of capacity so we see here the first level with the starting of the ramp and the two calls for the vertical distribution so this was this building offering the capacity before the occupation by the school of architecture because the school of architecture coming inside disbelief was able to establish some new platforms very light construction in steel and wood that could take the capacity of the height defender and the resistance of each floor to have a sort of system of mezzanine in order to offer the possibility of the school for his program and his functions and the auditorium in this part here and this platforms takes this dimension and this occupation on each of the main levels for example here the level one which is occupied by this mezzanine three metres higher than this or the level two occupied by this mezzanine by this definition of species we create also inside the system system to different climates one in green is a standard climate so one which it is normally defined by the program twenty degrees in winter and the good temperature in a sauna but also this one the blue one which is a sort of intermediate climate just lightly heated in order to have never under 10 degrees but most of the time taking the radiation of the Sun for a broken attic creating a biometric situation and solar energy situation and then the project was done with this element and we with this situation also leading to this economy of project so every every time it was possible to create relations with the city to open the situation we try to make it for example here for the auditorium that has a large do opening in order to create relations between the audience the stairs and the outside and the river which is close to the school the space where we can build a lot of models which is one thousand square meters large and 10 meters high that offers a lot of possibilities so possibilities of storage to bring some containers inside the school from the street you see here the existing ground of the city which is very compacted that offers this connection with the street and the possibility to for the students for the professor's to imagine different kind of projects inside without any contract but also the possibility to create some concerts the auditorium with this possibility of an opening the door to create situations between inside and outside that is very much offered used by sonography professors and this extra space which is a sort of second school a school where for example here this process is may equating a sort of extra extra lesson with a little group of students in a place which is not a standard classroom and this possibility for the students to use to move to have a lot of space the proto the relation with the outside and with the climate outside always the Sun outside possibilities to create a lot of project linked with the classes workshops sports places that you can use with tables and move to different places the transparency and this and the visions from one space to another space to the city that is always important to link the different spaces together possibility to be alone or to be more to play music or to create nest between the columns and the ramp that links all these platforms from one level to the next level and that's step by step enters in the sky of the city possibility to have this very large terraces that can be used for descriptions for meetings or just for taking the Sun and the ramp going up to the last level which is these two thousand square meters totally large Agora in the sky of the city of Mount offering the possibility of choreography of music of making some shootings for the last Clio Oh No that also offers some good jazz for the school awesome Festival of cinema during three months in last summer so all things that it makes the school of architecture a sort of space a platform where plenty of exchanges are possible and that in which the just the question of architecture and push it to the question of culture about the space regarding the city where it is and the region around the city at this point I want to talk about this idea of transformation also the economy in part of the economy there is this question to build with to making do with with the existing with already everything what is already there the people the climate the trees the flow the salt the rose trees etc everything is important to do and by the way by using this to do more with less so it can be in fantastic situations like here in the area of God or close to Atlantic in a fashion what the question was precisely to say generally when you make a house in these situations you cut the trees and you erase the sand dune in order to place the houses and here the question by the clients were all we can do with what exists or it is possible to install the house and not to destroy the place where the art should be placed so we add 50 very high pine trees on the block sound you need a very beautiful shape and in fact we say we don't want to change and to touch anything of that so no one tree will be cut and the Sun Joon will stay exactly as it is so it is just to think about this precision of him standing the structure of steel inside the structure of the forest to make very precise foundation in order to avoid the roots to avoid the branches and to step by step to start to do to make this situation possible for habitation using the reflection of Sun on the sea to take it back to the corrugated aluminum under the house in order to make people working as if the world the house was not here before and just to give this addition to the situation we could say that perhaps 90% of the house was already there before the intervention of the architect and by adding 10% of material steals concrete or corrugated aluminum this is 10% makes the situation possible for living inside and taking the advantage of the grid landscape this transformation is available everywhere in beautiful situations or in situations that are a priori rejected like these suburbs in France and in in France since that these last 10 years more than 200,000 flats have been demolished in same times we have so much need of social and affordable housing so we want to work for a very long bond the idea of an alternative oh it is possible to do with instead of demolition so the idea is to add we have to add to it situations it's never with tech never substract always adding plus so it means that referring to the case study House program that we really like the idea that from this situation we could go to this situation and even better to these situations to give more freedom to give more floor to give more possibility of mobility so it means transform open extent but to give more space and more light with the existing with the people already inside like for the table elaborate in Paris in the periphery of Paris that was called Alcatraz with Android families and that project was to demolish it and to try to find a place for the inhabitants in plenty of other places in Paris so inhabitants were totally against the solutions so it was possible to try to apply our alternative and to say it is possible instead of demolishing to add in some cases some new bedrooms some new winter gardens and balconies a new kitchen or bedrooms new elevators repairing the bathrooms repairing the electricity and with the people inside to try to improve the situation so that makes that from this situation of extreme small dimension we give more possibility more freedom more mobility more possibility and by the way immediately it changed the image of the building from outside so it means that working for each flat inside transform the global image from outside it is exactly the same principle recently in Bordeaux it is the city dekum Park where this building were built in the 60s a very big number of buildings and we were commissioned to work on these three blocks this one is one and the smallest one so it is 15 level high nearly 200 meters long and this one is a little smaller so in total it is five hundred and thirty families everything is occupied there is no one apartment empty and the people they want to stay there so we see with precise build that what was done during 50 years it was perhaps 30 years later just to paint some figures on the facade thinking that perhaps life would be better inside but in fact it's not possible to work on this kind of refurbishment in fact the richness is inside so it's not a single building that we look from outside it is five hundred and thirty different flats with all 30 years of effort of decoration of love concerning what all the objects that we can apply against or against the walls and this is the incredible richness that is not visible from outside so each time that there is the idea of a possible demolition we should think of this energy of this passion of this time that is spent it all together and even in difficult situations each one is different the building looks the same from outside but inside it is totally fantastic number of different situations so the question was to say starting from one element we have five like this in the big building with three apartments with quarry here to say oh we can extend by four meters deep new extension with modular system of six point four all over the old facade and creates this extension so it means that for each apartment we place this new element sort of scaffolding that could be definitive and large enough of four meters and from this scaffolding it is possible to open the all the windows to change all windows by new windows create a winter garden and a balcony in order to change a flat in a villa and create this mobility that we were talking before for all the floods for all the levels so this was the situation and step by step we change it with the population inside because the need of the population was to say we want to sleep in our bedroom each night we want to go and wash in our bathroom each night so this question was to work on all these questions with the people inside which was also very nice because immediately we there were actors nearly of the transformation that was about their flag so you see here the modular unit they can placed on these columns they have their own stability their own foundation did not report any load on the existing building they are just stabilized with the facade or the existing building so it's element of six point four by four meters large we've already the balcony and the handrails that will be definite even that assure the perfection of the workers is the first time so then we create these fixations on the old facade with old windows we place level unlevel about eight of these modulus L units was possible to place each day and then we open the old windows to place new sliding windows offering the passage from inside to outside creating the second facade of the winter garden and then the possibility to have this extra space this garden this freedom in addition to the existing so from another view we see here the situation it as it was before here or we cut the the old window and we take some protection about dust and also as best which is partly around the window in order to protect the workers and the inhabitant inside so this is for one morning the habitants bit afraid and waiting for the opening and then view from outside open again placing the new windows and creating the extension so it was no more like that but it becomes like that with this possibility of free DT of mobility going from one room turning around bedrooms and going coming back by the other side and immediately what was fantastic it was to see the inhabitants participating nearly to the works and immediately using and placing new furniture new functions on there and this relation with the climate that is totally different instead of this little windows this possibility of filtering for intimacy of our climate even if it is winter if it is summer if it is morning if it is cloudy if it is rainy etcetera all the time this possibility to buy the inhabitants to control is relation with outside so by the way working like this from the inside changed the outside before after before and after and also new bathrooms new electricity additional elevators that from an existing building that was nearly decided to demolish to establish a new situation for the inhabitants without moving them the social housing company just went to the it's bunk you know because there was no subsidies from the government or from the city they went to the bank and they say okay if I transform the building like that with this amount of money I will have perhaps during 15 next year's rent which stays the same but this rent will come in and this should be should give me the possibility to make this work and the banker say yes no problem I give you the money to do that so it's possible and it was possible also to event to think two different things because you talk about how admiration for the case study House program so on top between judge minute on top of the building it was possible to add eight new villa with their own garden on top of the situation to create eight more floods in the program that you can see here which immediately also have the benefit of a fantastic view on the city of Bordeaux so it means 50% of floor in addition nearly seven square meters of addition on abotobble area and nearly fifty fifty square meters average extension considering the Winter Garden in the balconies energy saving is divided by three and the cost is forty-five thousand euro net by dwelling when if we consider the first idea which was demolition of the existing and rebuilding the existing the same number it would have been one hundred and fifty thousand euros for three times more to do perhaps less your face than the existing so here we can extend the surface and in the same time to be three times cheaper than the demolition and by the way in the arrangement there was small augmentation of the rent but in the same time the taxes and the charges was smaller because the energy-saving and the new elevators so at the end what has inhabitant to pay stage exactly the same as before so it is something that it is possible to do very quickly in another situation in the west of France antennas air to see the possibility of densification it is a typical area around the suburbs in France this tower had 40 flats on 10 levels and then we start from one situation of all these four flats by level we have very very small bathroom here that was small living room nearly no balcony to see how it was possible for this small bathroom to take the place of the room here to have a big window here then to find a new place for this new bedroom here new winter garden plus new balcony in order to propose a new flat by extension of the existing but in the same time it was possible to densify the situation so we start create these new bedrooms and winter gardens all around the building but here it was possible to add two new wings with 20 more flat here and 20 more flat so it means to double the number of flats and increasing the dimension of all the flats so without creating new roads new streets new electricity network etc on a very small territory around the existing this possibility to improve the quality of each apartment and in the same times to create new apartments so working really on densification that is able to transform a suburb in part of the city the old building and the extension to propose a new situation so we think that it's also a question of urban planning it's a question of situation I think what is interesting it is to consider very precisely some situations to listen to observe extremely delicately the number of trees the number of flat what are the problem what are the richness what is interesting what is missing is there something needed if there is something needed perhaps what can we do and what can we add or it is possible perhaps to add 5% 10% or 20% of new apartments that will create a new value for the situation so the city is plenty of these situations everywhere it's just needed to see them very precisely in Paris we make the work one thousand and five hundred sites of collective housing that creates a possibility of a little improvement of change so a capacity of transformation and densification of this one thousand and five hundred inventoried sites of collective housing it is the possibility for four hundred and fifty thousand occupied existing dwellings to be transformed and in the same times to approximatively 135 thousand new additional dwellings to build so a new value a sustainable transformation and incredible capacity of densification if we look very precisely to the city and to the situation's it means to for on its situations to do or not to do this Commission for this Plaza in Bordeaux was about the embellishment of this Plaza oh it was possible to make a beautiful Plaza so we went there and we take a lot of time with the people to talk to listen to to see what is what is going what is good what is not good at cetera and finally after a lot of also discussions with the municipality to come finally to the municipality and to say this is our project our project it is to do nothing and they agree it is like this now because in fact it was beautiful it was charming it was okay the people were playing football on the field and they were sitting on the benches and there is no reason of embellishment when we take time to look carefully to places transformation reuse was also what we have to deal with in all museum in Paris that was abandoned for for many years and that was a situation that we found in Paris in pallet Tokyo which is a very nice place very well located in in the city centre and this building was was built in this is the building was built in 1937 for the last universal exhibition in Paris and this was not the pavilion but commissioned for Museum which has from the beginning to wings the wings it was shared between the city of Paris which is the wing which is where it's National City Museum for Contemporary Art and the other wing which was a national wing and until 1990 75 there was a National Museum for contemporary heart but afterwards they built another building a new building in Paris in the Centre Pompidou and the collection move there the building became one this part of the building became the museum for cinema and photography until it was decided in the early 90s to make an important refurbishment and put inside the what he called Palais du Cinema so it means that it was an important and expensive renovation that they organized an international competition an architect won the competition and they started the construction during one year so that was the building when it was built in 37 quite strong and impressive from the outside and after this one year of renovation conducted by this theorem of architects the government decided to stop the project and it stopped immediately and the building was left in in the situation of nearly arene inside with all partitions demolish all the networks all elevators half of the staircase have been tear down no more electricity and just a strange situation of an abandoned buildings and stay log there like that during two or three years with a lot of damage which happened in the in the building because of the rain coming inside the big walls and so on and in the in 1999 the government decided to put inside the very small project of that was called installation it means the temporary project for Contemporary Art Center which was supposed to stay something like five years and was dedicated to the young contemporary artists and with a very small budget of three millions - to make this installation while the building is something like 26,000 square meters in the state that you can see so that was a great challenge and we apply to the competition it was the competition was very fast and we have just to to come back with ideas and method how to work on this building and we came back with we came back with just a text and the list of works because we have been totally impressed and fascinated by the architecture by the fact that this building has been made for museums so very very well done with a lot of natural light to exhibit artworks and due to the situation we didn't find necessary to to change the architecture and to add any other architecture but just to make the minimum works so that this building could open again to exhibition and open again to public and we did the list of very pragmatic work starting from the most important and say that maybe there will not be enough money to make any finishes but that was enough and our inspiration for the we did that in two phases one in 2000 and second one in 2012 and our inspiration for this project was the Sun Palace from Cedric price which for us is a very interesting project because it it talks about the freedom of use of people in a building that means that instead of creating constraint the building offers great flexibility and the great facility for the users to be also the not only the visitors but also the actors of the also building so we proposed for this YouthBuild new building in the first phase we did only one one level but in fact it was very successful and the government decided to to make second phase and to extend the temporary installation for another while and we propose to use alter levels for public use from the lower levels which are connected with the lower Street up to the last level which is totally under transparent roof but all the the IRA's except a very small era for the for the logistic access and small storage all the other levels where the decay were open to the public dedicated to exhibition or public events like you can see on those section so our goal was instead of the the small budget the first one was 3 million the second was 12 12 millions which is a very small for such a big building but our goal was to make the essential and necessary works so that all the space could be again usable so that's the section and in red here the the intervention here and there because it was a project of the exact and precise intervention not for all the building and for doing that it was very important to have a very strict and the exact knowledge of the building in order to avoid to make a general works but just to adapt the works to the the right place for any place of the building so this is for example an inventory and a report of of all the floors and the capacity and the quality of the floors that we had here so some of them were very weak some of them were much stronger and that was very important to focus on the work that we have to do on every place and again not to make a general intervention so we we did also at the same in addition to the plans a very detailed photography report just to have always in mind that we could work in the big amount of small situation in order to reopen this building and not working as a considering the building as a whole and make a general intervention so all the floors because for example this floor have been a temporary floor which has been made to consolidate the building after the they stopped the work because they were the works because they were inside very big holes and the stability of the building was damaged and we we try to see how we could reuse these temporary floors in with some reinforcements but makes them the final and not again starting to demolish everything inside so we did the same with this very precise inventory and report of the quality of the columns again because we could have said that the columns were very different some of them needed we're weak some of them were solid enough but they were not secure enough for the fire some of them just need in the rear and reinforcements and some of them didn't need anything and that was very important to have this inventory to define for every column which was the right intervention in order to be very precise and not to make something which was not useful in in the building and finally that gave this map of intervention which was not very usual plan that normally the architects are are giving in the studies but every red draw lines is a new intervention but it was the only way to explain to the the workers and the contractors what they they had to do so that was the intervention on the columns with every color is a different kind of intervention and doing that we arrived in in the budget which was given we achieved our intentions and we arrived to reopen the building to the exhibition and artist there was not any finishes but finally it was not really necessary because the space was interesting enough and also we provided the number of devices like mobile world wars curtains and some of the devices that allows to redefine the space at every exhibition according to the to the creator or to the needs of the artist but all these spaces are widely open this is not a place for heart where those who are not really educated or in inform can can enter and be can become familiar with art words because the place is very welcoming and very familiar for everyone and it's possible to stay to stay long to find the informations since it's also a living place it's not only a place for heart so the the lower levels have been also used at exhibition space and they are very convenient for videos or interventions like this old auditorium which was never opened because they were not security exists exists and we just did this new security roots and they could be open again and the place which were normally it was dedicated for storage but there is no storage because it's not really a museum so we saw that it was interesting instead of closing spaces with natural light to use this dark space is to for video artworks and all the levels could be up could be open and are still open for the the visits and for the exhibition we created just this big stair to connect all the levels which were not connecting connecting especially the lower level which were initially were the basements and the last level totally under the transparent roof that we have refurbish reusing there again all the techniques of greenhouses to create good climate this building is as no hair conditioning so they have the conditions with variations but it's totally assumed by the team of the creators and the last project which is also the this question of reuse of space and what to do with the existing and the the principle is first to look at places with a very positive eye and to see what is what we have in hands and what is offered by the place instead of looking first at all the problems so that's where this building was an old former the place where in in the middle of a big shipyard and that was the last space where the pieces of boats came to be assembled and after the boats were moving to the sea and now the building is alone in in the middle of nowhere because everything has been has been destroyed around but his building was kept because in in the memory of the inhabitants of the city it has a special special it's like an iconic building and the the the people call it the inhabitants of the city call it Cathedral because for them it has this building as as a great importance and great value in the history of the city and the shipyards so the the brief of the competition was - - built inside this building contemporary public Contemporary Art Center - to shelter public collection and we were supposed to - put inside this volume 7,000 square meters of new floors to have the - to create the storage and that the exhibition rooms after the visit of this place we come from the outside and then from inside we discovered this amazing space empty space with a huge volume all this natural light all around and the great capacity of for example the ground because of the activity before it was possible to build on the ground with a resistance or a resistance of five tones passed per square meters so that was already something interesting to keep so but after the visit and during the visit we really were fascinated and touched by the space and we had very fast intuition that it was a mistake to fill the space by different floors at different levels and finally we decided that instead of filling the building we will just create a double a kind of mirror which was totally new with contemporary construction that would allow to to put inside old the program here on this new building in order to let the existing totally empty and to to give this high capacity of having great installations or even concerts or any any big exhibition that could be possible there while in the new program this this volume was not possible so the new construction is is made with exactly the same shape inside we have concrete box which we we have inside the all the storage and exhibition rooms that's a very good condition for the conservation of the artworks and we have the second envelope which creates an intermediate space as exactly the same as in the in the dwellings that creates not only a climate but also an extra space for the this Contemporary Art Center so this is the existing wall some of the one of the biggest new exhibition room and the last level on top of the concrete box which is an extra space under the transparent roof with very nice conditions of climate but also with a nice view all around on the harbor as well as soon as on the sea on the north and some platforms which allowed to see what happens inside that's it thank you very much and we don't have too much time it was a fantastic lecture we don't have too much time for discussion because Anand John Phillipe need to go to the airport tonight but but we have a little bit so I just want to start by saying how deeply I admire your work and and the rigor and depth of your thinking and they the political integrity and they and the true originality of new thinking so because you're such philosophical architects I want to ask you about three big philosophical topics space time and architecture earlier in a conversation earlier today you talked about that your understanding of the connection between space and freedom and space and democracy and I wonder if you would talk a little bit more talk about that we think this question of innovating is fundamental because inhabiting is concerns each Nabataeans and we think today is a new role of architects different from the last centuries it is to think that each inhabitant can be is client and for the clients for the inhabitants to say okay we should also need an architect to work so we start with the in a be the house of the flat for each of them oh we can improve we can change we can help we can propose in the history of architecture convertible clear pleasurable situations for all and necessary affordable so it's not because the economy is a crucial point that we should lose our ambition of generosity of space we think that this is a fantastic challenge for all architects or young architects starting to say okay we have in incredible amount of possible clients in the existing city so this is for us this challenge linking with democracy a new role of architect or we can help or we can seek and be delicate with the city in an affordable way but still with a very very big ambition so we think it's important also considering the history of architecture to follow with this ambition only and the question of the time it's fascinating to look at your work and you know obviously you are reusing the existing city and existing structures but it's also interesting to look at they specifically at what you create and the juxtaposition of permanent materials concrete frames and I mean you use concrete a lot and you also use polycarbonate a lot and so there's they the enduring and the one could say the ephemeral but I am curious about how you think about your work in terms of duration and how what you think the lifespan that you're your own work will be and whether somebody you know the next lockitron and this all will come along in 40 years and we create what you've created no it's a question that today is this although is always a requirement in the in the project to sing to the life of the the buildings and to the life of the materials but also as as in any building including the old buildings the materials has different lives you have the structures that may have a long very long life and we can reuse it and what we do in the transformation of the housing many times we find very solid structures that we can start from these new structures to to continue something and to extend something so in our projects the structures are always there is no problem which is the the last thing of destruction because they they are very solid and they can last long then there is materials but again like in also all building which has a life which is shorter the secondary elements and for example you talk about polycarbonate but polycarbonate in fact as seems to have a bad reputation because it seems to be weak it seems to be light but in fact it's a very resistant materials material and it's the life of this material this is predicted so you we know that this material as a life of in terms of transparency of 15 years in terms of mechanical resistance it's it's very long it can be 30 years the houseless we have shown that built in 1992 all the greenhouse is in polycarbonate and it has never been changed and is still very well so in fact there is something also which is a cultural approach of the materials that sometimes material seems poor and some seems to be rich because of the aspects but in fact we don't really care about that we try to use the materials at the right place and Polycarbon will we also use a lot the glass but the glass and polycarbonate the carbonate cannot be placed at the same place in the building the class is closing many times they heated their zones because it's a double glass and it has good insulation a good resistance and poly carbonate we use it to close intermediate space because we need less air proof material to create the best climate because if the Winter Garden is air proof on both sides it doesn't it's not efficient it's not a good climate inside so we and we have learned that in looking at constructions like a greenhouses or industrial construction where there is no presupposed idea about materials about this there is no relation because between the aesthetic of the material and this its solidity and we have learnt about the greenhouses that in fact some architecture which can be a very light can be very technological very very clever very solid and it's interesting to to go out of our general field of knowledge and because sometimes we are too much enclosed in what makes architecture no single so I think here as in Europa we have so many control so many regulations that we are for each material that we employ we have to give the insurance the astronauts that it would prove that it will be solid enough for the time that we need so it's it's very difficult to make a building a temporary building with temporary materials because it's saying all the matter it would be much more expensive probably if we would like to make a temporary building than a very definitive building I'm gonna ask one more question and then turn it over to questions for the audience so if you have a question we have mics up in the front your vision of the role and the power of the architect is very expansive and again in a conversation we had earlier you said that the architect the skill to make possible what is impossible which i think is a beautiful formulation you also have a very deep commitment to interacting with an understanding not only the needs and desires but also the capacities and agency of your clients and so I wonder if you could talk a little bit more jean-philippe touched on it in in answering the first question but about your vision and understanding of the architects position and responsibilities today what is architecture or what should an architect be doing today and especially these would be others in the web of relationships that exist to create any any sort of build project students that were asked us a question about bit like that and we also about the question of fee when we do nothing on your inversing what is what is a few of our architects and I make the comparison with a doctor when we we feel a bit little sick when we go to the to see the doctor and we ask the doctor looks very carefully and after that in fact it's not a problem you are okay come back home and tomorrow it will be good and we give the money for the doctor and we are very happy so for the architects and for the city for the problems of the city it should be the same I think it is this to see in each situation what what is the problem what is missing what should be improved what can be what can we change it is very very simple justice in order to see or we can add to the situation sometime it's good so please don't change sometimes there is something to change sometimes you have a now the building English private residences that it is very old people they don't know how to making a to save energy because it's very Hall and perhaps it is possible to when you say okay I can add 10% of new flats for this residency in a to find the money to find a budget in order to improve the quality of the existing ones so it is to try to find this kind of situations where we can help to situations but it needs to be extremely precise I think you say architect is trying to make possible what seems impossible I said I think it is just to take time to listen and to see very very carefully all the situation and all the richness that it is invisible in situation where we sink no poor thing is possible to do the work and the role of an architect today's is not only building building and designing is a very small part finally of what we have to do now and we think that maybe we have more the role of the kind of transversal intelligence intelligence in terms of analysis of understanding the complexity of some questions understanding the complexity of a situation and and transversal is very important because we we have this skill by our education to understand the what the width the width of the question when we had 3m to embrace the yeah the question and to to have a kind of diagnostic of a situation but which is not only technical because many times the project starts by a technical diagnostic but nowadays there the technique is not enough it's not sufficient because the diagnostic must be as much historical as as poetic as cultural as the social and and I think that the architects have the right education to to understand this question to to put together consultants people we can give expertise and and we as a cadet we are singly really should gain to to to present our work like this instead of just designing buildings and the reshaping or so and this is a very very interesting work to bring to study to to be able to to put together different questions and something which is very complex to try to find more simple solutions that's a challenge in itself and it's a for us it's totally in in the role of the architects we find that there is a lot of even in our own work there is a lot of violence in architecture or in urbanism and we try to be precise we try to be delicate we try to work with kindness this for us is very important so when we say we want to add and we never want to take away so it means that each branch is important it should is important its rosetree is important each family is important each piece even one square meter of concrete is important when it is possible not to demolish it or to destroy it or to cut it and to reuse it also because it's for us it's it seems part of all the the words that are actually placed in the discourse of architecture sustainability ecology etcetera so when we talk of sustainability ecology we have to go really in this direction not just with the words and not with ax the ax have to follow the words it's what what we say but from the inside out is so important because it's it's it means that we have really the the feet on ground the eyes at the right level and that we see that everywhere there are people using place and it's not something romantic or but it's just because when you are listen carefully to those situation you its we changed radically our our understanding and look of look at things and we don't we don't think that the architect should have the power to determine what how people should do or how they should live but just try to give the the most interesting and efficient condition of space so that they everyone can can do anything in the best way it's listening to you that the two of you are in the very best way the true inheritors of the spirit of the generation of sixty-eight of a kind of joyful embrace of life as it is and the support of life as it can be yeah we we need to be positive and optimist and we need to we're interested by the complexity of the city we think that this complexity is not a handicap this complexity is a richness we want to see it with a very positive look and then we want to to understand it and to use it most of the time unfortunately this complexity seems an impossibility for a lot of programmers politicians bunnies and then because it seems too complex there is a sort of simplification what we go back to the thought of tabula rasa and we don't like that we like to see where our precisely the the little problems that we saved this problem immediately the sinks are much more easier to do to work and this is this this way of working that really interesting for us so you mentioned it but we we think that we we have been very lucky to to study architecture just after 68 in France after the for those who don't know the kind of French Cultural Revolution and we have been very lucky because it has opened to us a field of freedom which is totally incredible and it gave us I think for for for all our life a kind of great energy and infinite curiosity and they great trust in in people and in their life and we are as I think we are very very lucky of that it's time actually I'm sorry but it's time to put them on the road to the airport [Applause]
