Sensual City Studio

2015.04.08

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2014.04.28

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How to built a new identity for the Grand Paris new express train? Our project of the sensual city station.
The Pavillon de l’Arsenal invites SCS to design the scenography of the exhibition Le Grand Paris Express.

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2013.12.12

Philippe Simay as been invited by l’Institut français as part of the refelexion group who will discuss the futur of cities.

2013.11.15

Pauline Marchetti gives a lecture at the Université du Québec à Montréal, exploring the concept of the Sensual City applied on the Grand Paris Express project.

2013.09.09

Pauline Marchetti has been invited by Ruedi Baur to speak about the Sensual train station during his workshop Civic City (Quartier Créatif Marseille Provence 2013 and FAI AR)

2012.11.16

Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris

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2012.10.11

Pauline Marchetti and Jacques Ferrier present the Sensual City Studio.

10.10.2012

Lunch Talk in crown hall by Pauline Marchetti

De Mai 2010 à Novembre 2010, Le Pavillon France met en scène la ville sensuelle tout au long du parcours principal dans de grandes images vidéo qui composent une vaste fresque animée le long de la rampe. Cette fresque spectaculaire est divisée en huit grandes séquences.
Les images amènent le visiteur du pavillon dans les paysages urbains français et mettent en valeur les thèmes du pavillon : une ville qui à l’homme pour centre –les espaces publics et la vie collective – et qui se réconcilie avec les éléments naturels – les saisons, l’eau, le ciel, les paysages -.
Traitée comme une fresque animée, chaque morceau de l’œuvre a une dominante de couleur différente.
Ce film est une œuvre originale créée pour un espace : celui du pavillon France. Il est reproduit ici avec l’aimable autorisation de toute l’équipe associée à Jacques Ferrier et Pauline Marchetti lors de sa réalisation.
Le film entraîne le visiteur dans une expérience sensorielle qui ne se limite pas à la vision mais sollicite également…
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© making of film
Flair production, avec la collaboration de Jacques Ferrier Architectures, fiancé, Cadmos.
Commentaires : Jacques Ferrier, Pauline Marchetti, José Frèches, Guillaume Roy, Pauline Lévèque, Roman Hatala, Loik Dury, Pierre Pell, Alain Français.
Réalisation : Pauline Lévèque avec Maylis Dupré.

Conference presentation :
The aim of the “Sensual City” conference held on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September 2009 at College de France in Paris was to explore through an interdisciplinary approach the contemporary and future urban landscape using an innovative point of view, that of the senses.
The two-day conference brought together respected figures from the worlds of the arts, culture, philosophy, politics and the sciences to discuss and exchange their points of view on themes such as “The use of senses in the city”, “Sensual city and/or rational city” and “Is modern architecture the enemy of sensuality?”.

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The book :

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Public space no longer appears to be a place in which to meet and exchange, but rather a space of mutual threat. Cities reflect the great fear that residents have of exposing themselves. In other words, our era is undergoing a major crisis in terms of people living together, resulting in a weakening of an existential relationship to space. The large collective spheres have fragmented under the effect of economic globalisation and we are currently seeing a fallback to micro-spheres and individual bubbles.
It is now no longer sufficient to say that the growth of an intimate vision of the world has led to the public domain being considered stripped of meaning and value. It is also important to realise that by neglecting the public domain, by placing it in the hands of politicians and city planners, we have made ourselves incapable of being stakeholders in its future. This has led to the urban environment ceasing to be a space of protection and emancipation and, as a result, we have become far more vulnerable.
This vulnerability translates as practices, devices and programmes that contribute to the creation of spaces that are inoffensive, security-conscious and able to neutralise the risks of social contact.
A control-based logic
In today’s world, everything in the urban space – including semi-private spaces – must potentially be subject to surveillance. Cameras, cash distributors, metro gates, parking meters and so on are all possible sources of information. Here again, these citizen identification technologies are underpinned by the idea that social contact is more a threat than a resource and that urban space needs to be neutralised…

Wide sequence shot. Dominant colour: WHITE.
Exterior / Day then night / Paris.
Beginning of the loop.
Lit by the milky white light of the depths of winter, Ile Saint-Louis is filmed by a long tracking shot taken from a Bateau Mouche riverboat cruising down the Seine riverbanks. The mansion houses and Ile Saint-Louis quaysides slide by under a thick blanket of snow. Day slowly gives way to evening on this white shrouded landscape. Night falls and street lights begin to illuminate the city. In the distance, a window lights up on a building façade. The silhouette of a child appears behind the glass. In deepest silence, the snow falls increasingly heavily, forming an uninterrupted white screen. End of loop.

Sequence shot, accompanied by zooms.
Interior / Evening / Paris.
Beginning of the loop.
The sky is suddenly covered with thick clouds. A torrential spring rainstorm falls on the city. Place de la Concorde is filmed in the rain from inside a car driving round the Place. The rain can be seen in the golden glow of the headlights. Surprised by the downpour, smiling pedestrians rush to take shelter. Just a loving couple remains, kissing in the rain at the foot of the obelisk. Water flows in all directions: on the facades of buildings, bouncing off umbrellas, rushing down gutters.
The city lights can be seen through the rain streaming down a car’s windscreen. Water slides along the camera lens, distorting and blurring the image.
End of the loop.

Static sequence shot.
Exterior / Middle of the afternoon / Paris.
Beginning of the loop.
In the heat of the summer sun, the dazzling light blurs contours and throws sharp-edged shadows over the ground. The base and 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower are filmed using a close-up static shot.
Visual of visitors entering and leaving through one of the Eiffel Tower legs.
Time seems frozen. But the sun can be seen to be slowly setting, changing the reflections and vision of the city.
End of the loop.

“Fenêtre sur le climat” is an invitation to slow down, to stop your body and to meditate and rest before starting again your crazy day… It is a sensitive device that reacts with climate, light, sky and the circadian rhythm made of ceramic and stainless steel. Real-time shadows outside and sunlight inside. Walk around. Imagine the colors of the sunset. Walk inside. Frame the sky. Nightscape:  a lantern symbolize the transformation of the city at night. Welcome to the intelligent city: not much a technological city but a sensual one, where all your senses gives your body and mind emotions and feelings. In a brand new district, with remarkable architectures, it symbolizes our wish for a brighter future.

It is all about vanishing and appearing …

The brief explained two things: First, the bowling is an important activity of the village nature so it needs to have its own identity. Moreover it has to deal with the strength of the architecture of the Aqualagon which is just beside it. Then the building must not interfere with the view from the entrance on to the promenade. On the other end the building needs to stand out from this promenade. We translate those two issues in one concept: vanishing and appearing …. Vanishing: The bowling plays with nature, regarding the depth of the façade and its geometrical pattern and the reflection of the trees. Appearing: As soon as you move toward the building, then you see the pattern more intensively until the moment when you see it properly.
The materiality of the building creates an evanescent effect: the façade is a filter that evolves from wood panel to an interpretation of trees pattern.

The façade pattern is an extrapolation of what could be an organic architecture, without being a formal interpretation of nature. It is more subtle.
Finally, when you see it from the other side of the village nature, then you see a clear and magical entrance, designed as a bowling in the 50’s with its neon saying: “hello, please enter; you are going to have fun here”. Inside the building, you have a double view: tracks or sky. On one side, a ramp drives the client slowly to the tracks. This ramp is designed as the furniture of the bar and proposes a pleasant place to sit, have a drink and watch the show.
The ramp also leads to a niceterrace from where you can watch the tracks from outside and have a drink or have a nice view on to the woods around.

First screen: Macroscopic point of view.
Exterior / Late afternoon / Chosen location.
Beginning of the loop.
Dandelions pushing their way up between two concrete slabs. The small yellow flowers tremble in the wind. A bee comes to rest on the pistils.
End of loop.

Second screen: Close-up tracking shots.
Exterior / Midday / Choice of location.
Beginning of the loop.
The hands of a housewife watering the geraniums on her balcony. The shadows of the plane trees gently move across the ground of a sunlit square where a game of pétanque is taking place. A bird sings loudly from a branch. Lying behind, a slightly blue-tinted urban landscape. The sun which first brightens these colours then becomes blinding, crushing.
Fade to white.

Third screen: Succession of medium shots.
Exterior / Nightfall / Choice of town.
Beginning of the loop.
– Fade in from black –
A large park in the upper reaches of the town at nightfall. Strollers are making their ways to the exit gates. The park’s street lamps light up one after another. In the playground, the slides are empty. Sprays turn on and begin watering the vast lawns and colonies of narcissus. Everything is quiet, nothing moves apart from the rhythmic movements of the water jets. The silhouette of a peacock suddenly emerges from the night. Dreamlike, it slowly crosses the landscape. It cries out, the sound echoing through the silence of the park. The city lights glisten in the distance.
A new day. The park lawns gradually fill to become a giant solarium.
– Fade to black –
End of the loop.

Il y a de tout dans une exposition universelle : beaucoup de pavillons sont conçus comme des stands de foire, d’autre comme des attractions, ou encore des sculptures géantes ; rares sont ceux qui visent à être des prototypes d’architecture. Le pavillon France a clairement cette ambition. Cette proposition d’architecture prend naissance dans le thème même du pavillon, la ville sensuelle, thème défini au moment du concours et dont le développement scénographique a été indissociable de la mise au point du projet architectural. L’agence a mené de front la conception du contenant et du contenu. Une opportunité rare pour un architecte, qui m’a permis de pousser plus loin et de façon cohérente les travaux de recherche et de réflexion entrepris ces dernières années. J’avais avec Hypergreen et Concept Office proposé des ‘concepts buildings’, projets qui, bien que virtuels, ont permis d’ouvrir les thèmes d’une architecture pour une société durable au-delà des seules performances énergétiques. Ces deux projets, au-delà de leur frugalité en termes de matériaux et d’énergie, mettaient en avant une nouvelle relation avec la ville et de nouveaux modes d’utilisation des espaces du…
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Ignition Park is an innovative workspace which brings together technology, nature and human qualities. Our reflection will be orientated towards technology and sustainability but still related to the innovative research lead by South Bend.

The idea is to develop a superposition of several functional layers which creates an interaction of uses and a new atmosphere inside the TechnoPark. Environment interacts with buildings in order to create a green interface which promotes sustainable behaviors. The carpark becomes an underground layer and generates a green carpet all over the site. This built landscape will provide a new sense of orientation and safety for the users and will also bring new architectural qualities in this underground space. Natural light and visual continuity are the main aspects of the Technopark.

The green filter works as a visual and functional link from the garden towards the buildings and reinforces the idea of an interactive platform of productivity.

J’ai souvent l’occasion de regarder le panorama défiler à la fenêtre du train: passent des hangars agricoles, des entrepôts, des usines dont les bardages métalliques, peu à peu patinés, s’ajoutent doucement au paysage, alors que ça et là des constructions criardes et démodées rappellent ce que fût l’architecture convenable d’il y a dix ou vingt ans. La plupart de ces dernières nous encombrent déjà: de leur actualité passée ne restent qu’une arrogance dérisoire et une effrayante incapacité à vieillir.
Au contraire, bien des lieux de production, modestement construits, bricolés, malmenés acquièrent avec le temps une évidence dans le paysage: construits avec « le moins d’architecture possible », c’est paradoxalement ce « moins » qui donne plus de force et de densité à leur présence. Les constructions industrielles, conçues en dehors de la discipline architecturale, répondent de façon simple, directe, brutale même, à des fonctionnalités bien précises. Elles tirent leur légitimité de leur utilité et leur beauté singulière de leur nécessité…
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First screen: Close-up.
Exterior / Midday / Marseille.
Filmed in very tight close-up, the reflecting and surging sea glistening in the mid-summer sun is almost surreal.

Second screen: Tracking from a Bateau Mouche riverboat.
Exterior / Midday / Paris.
Fade to black
The line between water and sky remains in the centre of the image. Succession of views over the bridges of Paris and discovery of the city from the river.
Fade to black

Third screen: Static wide shot.
Exterior / Night / Marseille.
The image is divided horizontally, with the lower half of the projection occupied by water.
Beginning of the loop.
The Marseille coast is filmed during the day, allowing the city to be discovered along its length as it extends down the Mediterranean coast.
End of loop.

Fourth screen: Succession of wide shots.
Exterior / late afternoon / Marseille.
Beginning of the loop.
View of the sea from Marseille. On a street corner, from the city heights, between two houses, etc. Discovery of the sea, the horizon and perception of the city.
End of the loop.

1st prize. Competition in association with Agence TER, Paris. [ + ]

Applied research exemple : Extract from MindWalks, [ + ] « In these hitherto little-known place of HuangPu, stories seem ephemeral and eloquent, tracks and traces reveal themselves, figures become established – all of which are points of entry that offer us the opportunity, in turn, to form part of the urban scene. These fragments of HangPu, plucked at random from the nets strewn across the territories of our 21 km, are above all rich and complex; for the sensitive passer-by, they bristle with a thousand human stories. In each of these places, time and space together conspire to weave dense, diverse webs. The various sensations, sounds, smells, sights, movements and contacts of these places wash over us, plunging us into a reality that becomes clearer with each step, conjuring an increasingly intense image as our journey continues. »

Extending an approach we have taken in a number of urban projects, we consider that each urban situation provides an opportunity to explore a conceptual framework based on the way people will inhabit the city of tomorrow. Our starting point is to examine current and potential future ways of living, working, traveling, and consuming in the city. The aim, prior to designing form, is to create an environment that permits diversity and changing uses, and to incorporate these into a specific geographical and historical context. The intention is to replace a geometric urbanism with one based on atmosphere, materiality, and context in a way that intermingles architecture and landscape, and uses potential technologies to create a sensual city.
The Sensual City is a project that answers the urgent question of what urban planning should be for the 21st century. The urban culture of the last one hundred years has steadily expanded, with over half of the world’s population now living in cities, a proportion that is continually increasing and causing functional problems on an unprecedented scale. It is a situation that threatens our planet’s resources, as well as the way we live together in cities.
In the Western world, there is a need to go beyond the traditional model of European and American urbanism and take a fresh look not only at the city core, but also the suburbs, infrastructures, and transit systems, and accept that they represent a fully-fledged contemporary urban landscape. In the next thirty years, hundreds of millions of people will find themselves living in an exclusively urban web, an artificial universe in which technology will be omnipresent. The Modernist city, placing emphasis on structure and zoning, will propogate its Internationalist architecture throughout the planet and mass-produce urban worlds lacking in comfort or context. Acknowledging this, each new project provides us with an opportunity to innovate and place emphasis on qualitative exemplarity: in this respect, the Navy Pier project is an outstanding one.
With the Sensual City, our intention is to develop an alternative approach, one in which technology is not obtrusive nor an end in itself. On the contrary, it allows people to live in cities construed as responsive landscapes, designed to offer full sensorial experiences. The city becomes an environment incorporating sustainability and practicality, a setting where people can take pleasure in living together and be rooted in a specific culture, climate, and geography.
We believe these values align with those of Navy Pier’s Centennial Vision, in that we both aim to create surprising and interactive public space – one that fully engages both tourists and Chicagoans. Similar to our propsoals for the Aerospace Campus in Toulouse, the Jiading High Tech Park in Shanghai, or our competition entry for the Seguin Island master plan in Paris, we seek to alter the perceived boundaries between architecture, nature, and technology.

The light catcher

This building is a narrative on the city, its climate, its materials… and on art today and the ways it is promoted by Guggenheim. The climate is not a constraint, but a keystone of the spatial experience. The sky is our façade, the shadows our spaces… The sun’s rays are “caught” and reflected by a textured material. It is a reflection not just of the nearby buildings and trees, but also of the changing light and skies. We are inspired by the beauty of skies as depicted in Kaurismaki’s films. The building’s skin, incorporating a canvas of mirrors, lies between dawn and dusk, lightness and darkness, capturing the night lights. Inside, visitors are guided by a dramatic narrative: the building’s spaces react to people’s movements through a succession of sequences. As an event platform, it expresses the creativity of this design capital, embracing the city, forging links with its many galleries.

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First screen: Succession of general shots filmed from a high level.
Time lapses.
Exterior / Day then night / Paris and Marseille.
The framing is organised in such a manner that the sky’s horizon line is always in the middle of the screen and draws a line separating the image in two.
Beginning of the loop.
Paris and Marseille are filmed throughout the day and through to nightfall. The chimney stacks and city rooftops appear in all their diversity. They are cut horizontally by a vast sky imprinted with almost unimaginable colours: the pastel sky of dawn, the hard blue tint of the mid-afternoon sky, the blood red of the sky as the sun sets, through to the anthracite blue night sky.
End of the loop.

Second screen: Succession of medium shots.
Exterior / Day / Paris.
Beginning of the loop.
The sky is reflected almost everywhere in Paris: on the tinted glazing of skyscrapers in La Défense, on car windscreens, in a puddle, on the windows of tall Parisian buildings, on the zinc-covered tables on bar terraces, in the glass of a wineglass, in the mirror of a woman checking her makeup, in the splashing water of a fountain, in the opaque water of the river Seine, on the windows of an overhead metro as it speeds by, on the windows of a bus or the shop windows of a store. Finally, the sun’s dazzling glare in the reflection on an opening window. The screen fades to white.
End of the loop.

Third screen: Wide shot followed by succession of close-ups.
Exterior / Day then night / Paris.
Beginning of the loop.
The Eiffel Tower rises majestically to the clear sky above. A succession of close-ups of different parts of the Eiffel Tower, filmed from the base of the monument right through to its uppermost point, and beyond to the sky above. The sequence is completed by a view of the open sky.
End of the loop.

First screen: Tracking from a car.
Exterior / Day / choice of city.
Beginning of the loop.
Spectacular arrival in Marseille along the A55 urban motorway, commanding view over the railway lines running alongside the Joliette Port.Southeast bypass around Paris along the Périphérique ring road, crossing over the river Seine and views over the tracks of the Gare de Lyon main line station.
– Black -

Second screen: Static close-up shot filmed at ground level.
Exterior / Day / choice of city.
Beginning of the loop. Cyclists pedal by at top speed. Close-up shot of their feet of they fly by: a pair of fashionable trainers, a pair of high-heeled shoes, children’s feet, well-polished town shoes. A crowd of pedestrians cross a Parisian street. Skateboarders rush by on their boards at full speed and then come to a screeching halt.
– Black -

Project for the new Subway of the city of Paris, France.

The station’s grip on the city is growing, reasserting its status as an important urban landmark. The sensual station is the laboratory of contemporary urban life, the place where we test new ways of sharing space and of building the Paris of the future. We want to move towards a better way of managing urban living, and the development of a much wider public transport network will not only improve access to the rest of France, but radically reconfigure the shape of the Parisian landscape. A more mobile Paris will sharpen our sense of vision, renewing our awareness of our everyday environment so we can rediscover the wonders around us. This is why we are convinced that visual pleasure must be at the heart of the qualitative approach to space. For its users, the station is a multi-purpose space, responding to the requirements of an extremely wide range of lifestyles. It is becoming a central information point for cultural, sporting and social activities in France’s various regions, which offer a wealth of resources and opportunities. Digital urbanism should not imply the loss of a physical relationship with space, through a lack of interest in the station as an actual place. On the contrary, it relies on physical space, using technology to improve the sensory qualities of the public spaces within the building. The introduction of an interactive dimension within architecture changes the way it is perceived and experienced. We have decided to focus on the sensual dimension of Paris’s stations: their atmosphere, the emotions they inspire, the impressions they leave and the stories they tell. For us, architecture and design are not just about objects, but a shared ambiance. In addition to creating built space and infrastructure, we aim to use light and sound to create a welcoming, calming and pleasant environment inside the station.

« PassatgeBesòs » is an international competition addressed to architects, urban planners and technical designers with experience in city planning, organized by the Consorci del Besòs in collaboration with the Institut pour la Ville en Mouvement (IVM, Paris) which aims to select a proposal to improve the existing underpass under the railway that connects Sant Adrià with the sea, the tram and the site of the former Besòs power station. « The passage of light » is a proposal with a strong emphasis on the experience of passersby that demonstrates sensitivity to the fact that the site is first and foremost the point of connection between Sant Adrià and the sea. It theatrically explores how light transforms things and its relationship with the underpass. This scheme sets out to harmonise the complex play of elements in the environment by reinterpreting access points as rest areas or plazas by incorporating staggered levels for seating and other classic urban landscape elements. Using light as a design element is the best tactic possible for beautifying a subterranean environment.

Après une période d’expansion brutale, qui semblait devoir ne pas avoir de fin, c’est la méga-crise financière de l’automne 2008 qui stabilisa la croissance des grandes métropoles. On croyait que la vieille Europe allait encore pouvoir donner le ton en matière d’urbanisme au cours du 21ème siècle. Mais c’est l’Asie, et plus particulièrement la Chine et l’Inde, -les deux seuls pays dont les économies ressortirent renforcées de la méga-crise- qui, en raison des énormes problèmes urbains qu’ils ont rencontrés, ont amorcé un changement radical en la matière.
L’engorgement de la circulation dans les métropoles chinoises, dont le taux d’équipement en voitures particulières a vite rejoint celui du monde occidental, a donné lieu à des bouchons monstrueux et à des pics de pollution d’une ampleur jusqu’alors jamais atteinte. Shanghai, qui avait imposé les deux roues électriques dès 2006, a banni la voiture à essence de la ville en 2012, mesure qui s’est généralisée à toute la Chine, à l’Inde et puis à la majorité des grandes villes du monde. Le développement de moyens de transport en commun non polluants s’est alors imposé comme la seule alternative…
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Au cœur du parcours audiovisuel imaginé, cinq écrans au format cinéma et une atmosphère soudainement sombre plongent les visiteurs du Pavillon de la France dans le 7ème art français. Une promenade urbaine, nocturne, sensuelle et étrange à travers un montage de courtes séquences extraites de 15 films des années 40 à nos jours. Des paysages urbains, des regards célèbres, des lumières et des silhouettes, des croisements et des rencontres dans une nuit de mystère, de mouvement, de tension, d’errance… Le compositeur Loïk Dury s’empare des bandes sonores, mêlant voix et musiques pour renforcer l’effet immersif.

In partnership with les Archives Françaises du Film / Centre national de la Cinématographie :

Competition for innovative urban project launch by the city of Paris, France.

« On pourrait imaginer le rêve de fluidité et porosité retrouvé. Quelque chose bâti sur la transformation du temps des objets des corps et non sur la confrontation permanente. Au contraire : une permanence oui : un lieu de troc contemporain. Un lieu de «deal» où s’échange du savoir contre du non savoir. Du matériel contre de l’immatériel.

Il faut imaginer du temps dans un «shaker» où se croisent par exemple des performances quand on sort du travail. Ou avant qu’on y entre. Des ateliers d’écriture qui se font pendant la pause déjeuner, qui se continuent en privé pendant les «working hours» et qui se terminent à 200 dans l’espace public. Il faut imaginer qu’un poème puisse être monnaie d’échange. Dix minutes de danse également.
Il faut que les espaces où l’on se nourrit soient participatifs. 20 minutes pour éplucher des légumes égal une soupe gratuite.
Il faut s’inspirer des anciens Monts de piété : on apporte quelque chose, qui est déposé et utilisé pour un temps contre une petite somme. Cette petite somme permet d’acquérir autre chose. Une perceuse déposée = un sandwich.
Il faut s’inspirer du sociologue Marcel Mauss et de son étude du don et du contre don. Je te donne quelque chose tu me donnes quelque chose avec un léger surplus. Ce surplus me permet de donner plus au prochain contre un petit peu moins. Etc.
Il faut imaginer d’autres formes économiques qui ne passent pas strictement par l’échange d’argent. Assister à un spectacle et aider à ranger après. Visiter l’atelier d’un artiste et lui faire à manger à la fin. Inviter un philosophe, un scientifique, un journaliste, un sportif pour une rencontre et lui faire à manger. Ou chanter pour lui. La nourriture va avec la pensée.
Il faut que les cuisines soient poreuses avec toutes les formes artistiques : poésie, performance, théâtre, danse, art, musique, cinéma, revue. Petit déjeuner, déjeuner, dîner.
Il faut relier l’art à la vie ordinaire. Au social.
Il faut pouvoir se reposer, faire une sieste, dans un espace où des artistes travaillent.
Il faut pouvoir dormir dans l’atelier d’un plasticien. Ou d’un chorégraphe.
Il faut pouvoir.
Il faut pouvoir faire ce qui ne se fait pas. Tout ce qui semble impossible il faut le faire.
Il faut ouvrir. Ouvrir. Ouvrir. Il faut maintenant «plugger» les réseaux de la vie, autrement. Avec aux commandes : les femmes, les jeunes et la diversité Française.»

Pascal Rambert,
Auteur, metteur en scène, réalisateur, directeur du théâtre de Gennevilliers

Interview : A FUTURE CHALLENGE – THE CITY BY NIGHT :
For centuries, the countryside had always been a place where nothing happens. Despite this, the population was scared of the forest and all the terrible things that might happen there, the dangers of highway robbers, and so on.
As soon as the city was born, it introduced the idea of going out and meeting up with friends. A whole new way of life developed with the introduction of urban lighting and, ultimately, the electric lighting that would finally convert night into “city night”.
What would you now recommend for cities that wish to make better use of the night but want to avoid being wasteful and costly in terms of consumption?
Above all, it is necessary to light efficiently. The best solution is one that lights the city but also allows you to see the stars. Currently, you cannot see the stars from the city because light pollution creates a halo that veils the celestial vault.
How can we resolve this problem?
We need to develop inventive systems that light well in the particular areas where we need to be lit but which do not light too much and, above all, do not light upwards…

Why SCS loves We love green?

Given the depletion of natural resources, it is now necessary to do more with less and to invent a new economy of sharing. Sensual Studio City joins We Love Green to promote sustainable design architecture, based on the reuse and recycling of materials.

We Love Sensual City is an installation consisting of metal hoops and sheets on which are printed photographs. What first seems to be a photographic exhibition on the Asian city turns out to be a sensitive trip in Asian cities. Walking through the sheets, an interpretation of cloth hanging from the windows, the visitor is invited to experience the sounds, textures, light and wind while discovering what makes the quality of the landscape urban Asia. In this sensitive evocation, this metropolis no longer appears as the symbol of the generic city, cold and standardized, but rather as a source of inspiration to merge contemporary and vernacular.

Street Architecture Competition – Storefront for art and architecture. « You walk for days among trees and among stones. Rarely does the eye light on a thing, and then only when it has recognized that thing as the sign of another thing: a print in the sand indicates the tiger’s passage; a marsh announces a vein of water; the hibiscus flower, the end of winter. All the rest is silent and interchangeable; trees and stones are only what they are. » Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972. On our initiative, the ‘’wall without wall’’ is designed expressly as a place for speaking, sharing and reflecting on issues affecting the key topic of politics and democracy in the city.

Rien que pour vos yeux…
« Depuis toujours l’architecture a offert le prototype d’une œuvre d’art dont la réception s’opère distraitement et collectivement.(…) Il y a deux manières d’accueillir un édifice: on peut l’utiliser ou on peut le regarder. »
Walter Benjamin
L’idée de façade, quand elle n’évoque qu’une composition géométrique qui vient donner de façon théâtrale une figure au projet, ne m’intéresse guère. Que la façade appartienne à la ville tout autant qu’au bâtiment est incontestable. Mais que, de là, elle soit considérée comme autonome des autres contraintes du projet est un renoncement à un travail d’architecture qui serait une création globale. Certes les exemples abondent qui, de la place des Victoires à la rue de Rivoli, démontrent que la façade conçue comme un décor urbain a pu produire des espaces remarquables. Mais à ce compte là, la rue idéale est celle du théâtre Olympique de Vicence, et la vie en ville ne devrait être qu’une mise en scène…
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In association with Jacques Ferrier Architecture.

“Your gaze scans the streets as if they were written pages.” From Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Triptych from Pauline Marchetti. Studio Marant edition. [ + ]

La ville est un paysage qui se construit par le regard. Le spectateur découpe, cadre et assemble des motifs architecturaux disparates en un tout cohérent porté par la singularité de son regard. Aussi, le plaisir qu’elle suscite ne tient pas tant à son étendue qu’à cet acte de composition. Il existe un plaisir spécifique à saisir la ville comme scène et comme panorama, au travers du contraste entre le contexte de sa propre situation et l’étendue que la ville donne à contempler. Le triptyque se construit et se déconstruit, se découvre subtilement, et disparait entre les pages blanches de l’histoire de la ville qu’il reste à écrire…

Galerie des Galeries has come up with an innovative exhibition concept, with contributors from various artistic fields jointly developing a project exploring the worlds of art, fashion and design. Visitors will find themselves immersed in a scenography whose starting point is the art work itself. Around each multiple, contributors construct a composition of fashion items and assorted objects, reminiscent of the Surrealists’ “exquisite corpses”. Everything is up for sale. For this collegial project, art books and multiples editors Mélanie Scarciglia and Christophe Boutin have selected eight multiples. Based on these works, stylist Victoire Simonney will interpret the world of each artist through a choice of outfits and accessories from thirty different brands. Lifestyle specialist and objects spotter Jean-Bapstiste Charpenay-Limon will provide a range of eclectic objects and create an intimate space. These combinations will laid out by architect Pauline Marchetti in a way that maintains the specificity of an art gallery but infuses it with the kind of warm atmosphere one expects in a shop. Each item is uniquely connected to the multiple, which radiates its light on surrounding objects. Invited by the artspace director Elsa Janssen, the contributors will respond to the work of eight different French and international artists: John Armleder, Pierre Bismuth, Elvire Bonduelle, Daniel Gordon, Jonathan Monk, Rafaël Rozendaal, Josh Smith and Pier Stockholm.

« Il faut réintroduire un peu de douceur et de plaisir dans le rapport avec la réalité urbaine contemporaine. » Jacques Ferrier

Ligne Roset a fabriqué les 260 chaises Aluchair, dessinées par Jacques Ferrier et Pauline Marchetti pour équiper le Pavillon français de Shanghai et les édite depuis pour les mettre à la disposition du public. Dans la lignée de Jean Prouvé, ils ont cherché à atteindre la justesse intemporelle des objets utiles. Leur conviction est que l’objet du quotidien est sensuel lorsqu’il est simple, familier, solide… Dans cette idée, ils ont pensé une chaise qui peut être utilisée tant à l’extérieur qu’à l’intérieur. Le piétement en inox et aluminium supporte un jeu d’assises ajourées qui peuvent se revêtir d’une gamme de feutres de laine. Ici sensualité rime avec confort et bien-être.
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Pauline Marchetti is a DPLG certified architect and a graduate of the Paris Belleville school of architecture. She led with Jacques Ferrier the French Pavilion project for the World Expo 2010 of Shanghai. In 2010, they both set up the Sensual City Studio which serves as a framework to develop and champion the concept of Sensual Cities. The Studio seeks to improve this sensitive, humanist approach to architecture and city scape. The physical relationship to space is fundamental to her practice. She is a Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris since 2016.

Jacques Ferrier works in France and abroad. He created his own studio in 1990 in Paris and his works now include the design of major cultural buildings, prestigious buildings, public facilities, research centers and urban development. JFA’s output is all based on the same philosophy: the creation of architecture and a city for a sustainable society. In 2010, he associated with Pauline Marchetti to create Sensual City Studio, a new structure allowing them to jointly develop and assert the Sensual City concept.

Philippe Simay is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture of Paris Belleville. After graduating with diplomas in philosophy and anthropology in France, he conduced post-doctoral work at Oxford University in England and at the Illinois Institute of Technology Archives in Chicago. Specialized in the study of urban and architectural questions, his work reflects on the intersections between art, the city, and technology in a metropolitan society.

Estefania Mompean, Architect, Urbanist, Graphic Designer,  Project Leader

Elisa Alvarez, Architect, Project Leader

Fabien Goutelle, Graphic Designer

Hélène Bechet, Geographer, Urbanist

And:

Laura Ulloa, Architect

Vincent Langrenay, Trainee

Pierre Bayol, Designer

Han Hui Qing, Designer

Thomas Havet,  Architect, Trainee

Solène Petit, Plastic art, Trainee

Gianni Villa, Architect, Trainee

Morgane Damez, Architect DE

Alexandru Senciuc, Architect, Trainee

Marion Nielsen, Architect, Urbanist, Ph.D in Architecture

Pauline Delmotte, Architect, Trainee

Juliette Guichard, Architect, Trainee

Melissa Lalanne, Architect, Trainee

Matt Piker, Architect