LAN

"I would like there to be stable, immobile, intangible, untouched and almost untouchable places, immutable, rooted; places that would be references, starting points, sources... But such places do not exist, and it is because they do not exist that space becomes a question, ceases to be obvious, ceases to be incorporated, ceases to be appropriated. Space is a doubt: I must constantly mark it, designate it; it is never mine, it is never given to me, I must conquer it."

Fifty years after its publication (1974, Galilée editions), George Perec's "Espèces d'espaces" has never been more relevant. The space of doubt: between subprime crises, tsunamis, giant fires, droughts and epidemics, the beginning of this century has shifted societal and environmental issues and, consequently, those of architecture.

Symbol of stability and permanence, the art of building must now deal with an unpredictable future. If the classical period was that of interpretation and the modern period that of prediction, the 21st century inaugurates an era of indeterminacy. To transform this state of generalized uncertainty into a driving force for projects, it is imperative to observe, describe and understand a world that has become complex, heterogeneous and contradictory.

On the occasion of the exhibition "Spaces without Species" at the Galerie d'architecture, LAN takes stock of eleven spaces (and as many projects) whose definition is open and whose emergence is not linked to a functional requirement but rather to a perspective, climatic, social and sometimes resolving a contradictory or paradoxical condition.

These are places at the crossroads of several typologies, several climates, several uses. Marked by opportunism, they have in common the ambition to embody potential responses to climatic, societal and cultural changes.
Eleven new species of spaces, or rather eleven spaces without species.

Opening: 10.10.2024, 6:30 pm