© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
The “Festival des Architectures Vives” is an architectural festival for the general public to discover or rediscover the historical landmarks of the city of Montpellier and the city of La Grande Motte. The festival also allows young architects from all over the world to build their first project. This year young Architects are Jeremy Germe and Chloé Thomazo.
FAV Pavilion Technical Information
- Architects: Pseudonyme Architects
- Location: Hôtel des Trésoriers de le Bourse, Montpellier, France
- Typology: Cultural Architecture / Installation
- Design Team: Jeremy Germe + Chloé Thomazo
- Project Year: 2016
- Images: © Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects, © Paul Koslowski
By offering the opportunity to the festival visitors to come on stage, we wanted to put at the center of the project the visitors. Throughout the festival, we proposed to the visitors to be photographed as a souvenir of their visit.
– Pseudonyme Architects
FAV Pavilion Photographs
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
© Courtesy of Pseudonyme Architects
Text by the Architects
The ‘’Festival des Architectures Vives’’ success comes from all the curious people crossing each other in Montpellier townhouses’ courtyard. Innovate is for us the opportunity to put the visitors at the heart of the project, offering them a playful and interactive project.
The installation that we imagined is a real photography studio: spotlights, cameras, and a stage. The courtyard is not only scenery; it regains its original function of an urban and social scene: visitors can take pictures of themselves and play the “Comedia del Arte” in the spotlights. The photos are then uploaded online via the festival website so that everyone gets a souvenir to share with those close.
Giving free rein to the festival visitors, we wanted to innovate by creating a playful and connected event. The attraction isn’t the plasticity of the installation but the visitors themselves.
The Project
The stage is the main asset of the project. Its structure and organization make it an appropriate object for the festival visitors. The projectors enhance the courtyard and illuminate the visitors. The mirror’s effects are the opportunity to reflect some of the details of the townhouse. Lastly, the festival visitors have the opportunity to be photographed in the courtyard and thereby to take home a souvenir of the festival.
An architectural object
Above all, the stage is an architectural component. It is at the same time an amphitheater, a bench, a staircase, and a lectern. The different settings are unified by a natural pine envelope that defines the whole installation’s architectural style.
An urban stage
These different uses and practices create an appropriable project; whether to sit, lie down, talk, debate … Everyone is free to express themselves. Thus the courtyard finds its function of socialization, meeting, and exchange place for the people.
The visitors
By offering the festival visitors the opportunity to come on stage, we wanted to put the visitors at the center of the project. Throughout the festival, we proposed to the visitors to be photographed. These photos were the opportunity to offer everyone the opportunity to take a souvenir of his visit.
FAV Pavilion Image Gallery
About The Festival des Architectures Vives
The Festival des Architectures Vives is an architectural path for the general public, who can discover or rediscover Montpellier’s city’s historical landmarks since 2006 and the city of La Grande Motte since 2013. The event invites visitors to contact this rich heritage by offering installations scattered around the city. In Montpellier, it takes place in the historic town and offers a path connecting mansions and courtyards, mostly private, that are usually not visible to visitors.
In La Grande Motte, the festival invites the visitor to discover a revisited contemporary architectural heritage, and sometimes rewritten by young architects. Thus, the city of La Grande Motte and specifically the architecture of Jean Balladur, recognized as the “Heritage of the twentieth century,” is put into perspective by these ephemeral works.
Each installation created by architects teams allows us to highlight a younger generation’s work: inventing, experimenting, and exploring new design of our environment fields. Thus, the festival offers them the opportunity to make a submission through an installation in the heart of the prestigious and remarkable setting offered courses and mansions and to confront qualitative urban spaces open to the great landscape in La Grande Motte. Each one opens a dialogue between heritage and contemporary architecture installations.
Since 2006, the FAV is organized annually by the association Champ Libre, chaired by Jacques Brion and Elodie NOURRIGAT, architects in Montpellier.
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