Sensual City Studio

Interview between Jacques Ferrier, Pascal Delannoy and Jean-Christophe Ogier.
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Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

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Thresholds are an–often overlooked–anthropological constant found in every era and every culture. From the spatial understanding of Greek antiquity to the establishment of the private sphere in the 18th century and the transparency of modern architecture, the threshold has always been a central architectural element. Like a visual symbol of a boundary or a transition, thresholds divide spaces, but are also a connecting element, opening up ways through and across, which have a subtle influence on one’s own perception of space.
It is only in recent decades that thresholds have lost significance as part of our everyday experience with architecture. What remains is a growing emptiness between people and the spaces in which they live.
Sensual City Studio not only provides an inspiring overview of this important architectural stylistic feature from all eras and cultures, but also shows in particular : thresholds can and must be rethought and rebuilt. In this respect, our book A History of Thresholds: life, death & rebirth, is a plea for the renaissance of the threshold and therefore also a manifesto for a human architecture.

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Scenography │ Aahrus │ Denmark │ 2017

The never-ending expansion of urban spaces compels us to rethink the way we wish to experience our towns and cities. The world is now made up of layers of complex, superimposed infrastructures, whose daily operation is made possible only by the omnipresence of technology – which, while enormously useful to us, has nevertheless become an authoritarian component of our lives, forcing us to adapt to new spatial practices that lead us to feel more and more passive, and less and less like actors and stakeholders. (…)

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MiNDWALKS in Shanghai. For Shanghai is an experience, an image that you carry around with you. Far from the cliché of the generic city, this is a vibrant metropolis – as vibrant as its inhabitants. But in order to truly understand it, you have to discover it on foot, to go out on a limb and experience places in terms of their physicality. 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. In these hitherto little-known neighbourhoods of Shanghai, 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. Between August 17 and September 14, 2015, we went on eight walks, each taking place within a clearly defined area measuring 2,000 metres by 500 metres – that is, precisely one square kilometre. The aim was to immerse ourselves in a portion of Shanghai in order to absorb its atmospheres, images and stories, and recount them in a graphic narrative form. With this in mind, we invite you to discover eight maps of a new kind that combine characteristics of street plans, narratives and sensory maps. Their aim is not so much to objectively locate topographical elements as to recount how these places were experienced and portray their multiple dimensions: the rhythms, impressions, perceptions and representations associated with them. Here, subjectivity is a means of tempering the detachment between the metropolis and its inhabitants and promoting a more human form of urbanism – and reminding us that a city is perhaps nothing more than an emotion. Sensual City Book Publisher, R-Diffusion, 2016.

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Delivered │ Paris │ France │ 2012

With the launch of the international consultation for stations in the Greater Paris area, the Studio found the ideal context for the deployment of its philosophical concepts associated with the sensual city. The scheme was intended to define stations according to the specific features of the environment in which they are located, to deliver efficient and user-friendly spaces for the use of travellers, which are both open to the city and marked by common characteristics for the entire network. While the quality of public facilities and their incorporation into the urban environment are of fundamental importance, the scheme will also sow the seeds for the achievement of a new and urbane quality. Based upon the pursuit of atmospheric urban development, the Studio therefore couched its proposal in terms of the humanistic perspective which informs its policy. This position provides a response to the apparent contradiction in the brief, which emphasizes the creation of a specific and shared identity for stations on the GPE, whilst requiring compliance with the commitment to local municipal authorities that each station should be rooted in its respective territory. By transposing the formal recognition of facilities into an approach based upon the perception of space – the quality of air, light, sounds, smells and textures – the JFA-SCS group has expressed the all-encompassing qualities of the network in terms of shared ambiances and sensory experiences, rather than in terms of form. This approach gives a substantially free rein to the creativity of the future designers, who will be guided in their decisions by three charters which are intended to ensure the standardization of all stations on the future metro network: the architecture and development charter, the spatial design charter, and the facilities integration charter, established by SCS.

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Delivered │ Shanghai │ China │ 2010
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture, Agence TER, Scénos Associés, C&E ingénierie

There’s a bit of everything in a world expo: a lot of pavilions are designed like exhibition stands, others as tourist attractions or even giant sculptures. It’s rare to find a pavilion that is designed to be an architectural prototype. This is clearly the aim of the French pavilion. The architectural design originates in the pavilion’s theme – the sensual city – a theme that was defined during the design competition. The design of the interior exhibition spaces is indivisible from the development of the architectural project…

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Everyone has his or her own image of a Mediterranean city. Above all, it is a series of sensations: the intense blue sky, the sparkling sea, the pine trees swaying in the breeze, the laundry hanging from the corners of apartment windows, the particular sound of the wind, the clacking of petanque balls, the too-noisy motorbikes, the conversations that float through the air until late at night, the smells that waft amidst the streets. Impressions such as these do not easily find a place in manuals of urbanism. They are, however, what makes Mediterranean cities so unique and beautiful. Well beyond their territorial and administrative divisions, cities in the Mediterranean arc share similar cultural and experiential features. From Genova to Barcelona, through Nice, Marseille and Montpellier, the ten million inhabitants of the area each embrace the same landscape—that is, one that faces the sea, and is most often flanked by the pronounced reliefs of the hinterland. They bask in the same climate that creates similarities in their rhythms and their daily preoccupations.

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“Memory’s images, once they are fixed in words, are erased” Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

A sensitive portrayal of one perspective of Asian cities. Cities are landscapes that are created by how we look at them. The spectator cuts out, frames and combines the disparate architectural motifs into a coherent whole through their own unique perspective. The pleasure derived from the city lies not so much in its magnitude as in this act of composition. We get a special form of enjoyment out of viewing the city as a stage and as a landscape, through the contrast between the context of one’s own situation and the sprawling scenery the city lays out before us. The triptych emerges and dissolves, is subtly discovered and disappears in the blank pages of the history of the city which has yet to be written… A Triptych by Pauline Marchetti, drawing inspiration from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Edition Studio Marant.

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Dyptich for the exhibition Impressionismus, Architektur Galerie Berlin, 17/03/17 – 17/04/29

In 2010, from May to November, the French Pavilion brought to life the ‘sensual city’ along the main walkway in a series of video projections making up a vast moving landscape along the ramp. This spectacular scenery was divided into eight major sequences. The images immerse visitors to the pavilion in urban French landscapes and highlight the pavilion’s themes: a human-centric city – with public spaces and community life – in harmony with the natural elements – seasons, water, skies, landscapes.

Video by Pauline Marchetti and Philippe Simay done during its residency at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris, France, 2014.

© Pauline Marchetti, Philippe Simay │ 2014

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In progress | Vilamoura | Portugal | 2017

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture, Franck Boutté Consultants, Estudi Marti Franch et ADA

Delivered │ Shanghai │ China │ 2015

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..

Competition│ Agde │ France │ 2014

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

The Mediterranean city is, above all, a variery of sensations: the intense blue of the sky, the shimmering sea, pine trees gently swaying, the dappled, shifting shade of the plane trees, washing hanging at windows like in postcards, the thin lines of lights seeping through closed shutters into a cool, darkened room during a siesta; but also the sounds, the particular character of the breeze, the metallic clunk of boules, the buzz of a moped and the intrusion of a car horn, conversations late into the night; smells of cooking drifting into the street with the intimacy of meals, the overbearing perfume of a passerby, sun cream in summer, pollution exacerbated by the heat and mixed with spices, rosemary and lavender… Such impressions are difficult to capture in a town planning manual.

Extract from the book « La Belle Méditerranée », Sensual City Studio

Delivered | Paris | France | 2012

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.

Competition │ Taghazout │ Maroc │ 2014

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

The leisure city.

For the Mediterranean Arc, music and performance venues, cinemas, museums and libraries, but also the ever-growing variety of leisure activities, should not be exclusively linked to “town centres” but should be spread over the entire urban area, stretching along the coast. Commerce, leisure, and culture (now condemned to emerge from its Ivory tower) have everything to win by integrating the coastal landscape in a synergetic and global vision.

Extract from the book « La Belle Méditerranée », Sensual City Studio

In progess│ Shanghai │ China │ 2014

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

En Chine il est urgent de construire donc on peut prendre le risque de faire un bâtiment radical, expérimental, ce n’est finalement qu’un projet parmi d’autres… Nous avons emballé le  bâtiment d’une façade double peau en  aluminium. Elle est étonnante par les proportions qu’elle prend (90 000 m2) qui créent un effet d’insistance. En France les élus ou les clients ont toujours peur de ce qu’ils voient comme de l’uniformité, de la monotonie.  C’est ce qui se traduit dans les ZAC par exemple par un catalogue de différents bâtiments.  Or là on arrive à emporter l’adhésion d’un client sur une même solution de façade homogène. C’est très radical après une fin de XXème siècle qui nous a habitués à une sorte de pittoresque moderne, un kaléidoscope  de matériaux et de couleurs notamment dans les quartiers nouveaux. Cela renoue avec la ville et l’architecture classique, calme : des villes entières faites avec un matériau : la pierre,  blanche, dorée  ou grise, selon le contexte local. C’est donc le moyen de calmer le jeu sans avoir une grande diversité d’écriture.

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.

Consultation │ France │ 2015

France plays host to the world.

There is little doubt that an awareness of a less formal, more human-oriented architecture will be in the ascendant over the coming years. Expo 2025 must translate this new way of thinking into building better urban environments. With this in mind, the Global Village pavilions, temporary structures, the same size for every nation, are an important opportunity to foster emulation that calls for intelligent, relevant constructive solutions, rather than mere spectacle. Each nation’s resources will be better distributed between the content and the context: the shows, meetings, and interactive activities being the main goal of each pavilion to draw in visitors. These new types of national pavilion work as both autonomous entities, hosting the exhibition and the events programmed by each nation, and as a group of countries which, together, carry a shared message on the theme of the exhibition. The compact nature of the site encourages a sense of closeness between nations on a scale not previously seen in universal exhibitions.

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Consultation │ South Bend │ USA │ 2012

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

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.

Competition │ Berlin │ Germany │ 2015

Project for the extension of the Neue Nationalgalerie.

Consultation │ Aulnay-sous-bois │ France │ 2013
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture and agence TER

Competition │ Paris │ France │ 2012

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

Roland Garros must preserve its unique identity in relation to the other Grand Slam tournaments. We suggest that the entire Roland Garros site, and in particular the historic triangle, should be considered as a single landscape interweaving city and nature. Buildings and green spaces merge to form a ‘built landscape’ in the heart of Paris. This ‘built landscape’ is a principle that can be tailored to the project proposed by the chosen landscape designer. To unify these two distinctly independent projects, we have devised a strategy: restructuring the buildings in the historic triangle (excluding the main courts) and landscaping, ensuring all of the work comes together in a coherent project as laid out in the master plan. Our project, which we have named ‘Roland Garros and spring’, places special emphasis on its sensory and sensual dimensions. With its atmosphere, its location and the services it provides, Roland Garros is a place to enjoy the city, that awakens all the senses of visitors, players, and organizers alike. The buildings and landscaping we are proposing reveal this sensory dimension, encompassed within a general topography that governs the very concept of our architectural design. The three main elements we focussed on were the organization building, the secondary courts and the interface with the underground areas. These emerge as three types of built landscape: a viewing mountain, hills, and subterranean caves. This landscape brings to mind the spring – the season in which the tournament takes place.

Anna Ferrier’s artistic and sculptural intervention for the interior of the French Pavilion restaurant.

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.

In progress | Vilamoura | Portugal | 2017
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

The master plan concept design of Lakes is not an urban project but a regional project that takes into account the different territorial components and challenges, from the topography to the infrastructure, landscape, context or the history of the site. The project is an extension of the existing city of Vilamoura. Extending and providing continuity to the different services that can be found downtown, reinforcing synergies with the nearby activities like the Parque Ambiental, Uptown Vilamoura, the beach, the many golf courses or the equestrian center. This project is conceived so it becomes an extension of the natural landscape, where a sensitive and human urbanism awakens the senses.

One of the main features of the Lakes development is the continuation of Vilamoura’s “Loop” which ties the city together and provides residents an easy and friendly way to move around. It is a key element of the concept that helps articulate the many uses and activities that will be found in the project. It also encourages residents and non-residents to use soft mobility transportation system across Vilamoura.

At sunset, the freshness brought by the loop that runs along the lake brings neighbors out of their homes. Families head to the island to find an evening ice, retirees go on their weekly fitness trail, and young people find themselves in the small squares throughout the project. The loop links all neighborhoods and encourages encounters.

Delivered │ Rouen │ France │ 2017

Delivery of entrance hall, indoor furniture and signage for Métropole Rouen Normandie.

In progress│ Sète │ France │ 2016
with Jacques Ferrier Architectures and C&t ingénierie

Competition first price │ Shanghai │ Chine │ 2016

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture, TER, Concepto, AND Shanghai

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“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.” extract from MindWalks

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Competition │ Medellin │ Colombia │ 2013
with TER, Jacques Ferrier Architecture, La Fabrique Urbaine, Maria Mercedes Jaramillo

The river is the main icon of the city, a space shared with everyone and for everyone, it is the place for displaying all the innovations which are taking place in Medellin and the connection between facilities and the most representative companies. The river is a shared space for all communities, a space for participation and conversation. It is an observatory for changes in the city, and contributes to the dialogue between citizens and their environment. The projects are ambitious in terms of usage: buildings that serve as infrastructure, libraries that are also parks… They become spaces for understanding and learning, giving concrete shape to the economic and social strategies at work in Medellin.

Competition │ Chicago │ USA │ 2011

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.

Competition | Yichang | China | 2013

The Yichang History Museum can be found at the tip of the cultural mall. It turns away from the mountains and overlooks the water of the basins. The museum is connected to the cultural mall via a long walkway which seems to float above the basins. It is a building that must tell a story, the story of the city of Yichang. It responds to the tradition of poets in the region by evoking the feeling of the gorges on the banks of the Yangtze river. Indeed, a great empty space runs through the building, letting natural light flood into the heart of the development. This provides a clear view of the sky from the public spaces directly below. A waterway runs along the ground, at the bottom of this empty space. The presence of water reminds visitors of the importance of geography in the city’s history.

In progress│ Sète │ France │ 2014
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture and C&t ingénierie

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.

Scenography | Berlin | Germany | 2017

Scenography of the exhibition Impressionismus of Jacques Ferrier, Architektur Galerie, Berlin from 2017/03/17 to 2017/04/29.

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Competition │ Helsinki │ Finland │ 2014

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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Competition | New York | USA | 2015
with C&t ingénierie

“You walk for days among trees and 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.

Our ‘wall without a wall’ is a space for speaking, to openly share the political and democratic questions of the city.

Competition | Shanghai | China | 2016

There, where the spirit blows.

The totem exudes a symbolic resonance: it is a constant in a shifting landscape, through its verticality and sculptural structure, it manifests a poetic and mysterious presence. In an urban context marked by change and movement, this quietly powerful structure offers those who discover it a sensory experience. A precious and finely woven object, it is made up of an assembly of modules, a tactile and visual testimony to local craft. The ceramic embodies this constructive beauty in its evocative materiality. The totem creates a central point as its weft spreads through the surrounding land. It radiates outwards across the ground, externalizing the services that respond to a contextualized urban quality for each site. A fantastical object, the totem is also a living, changing sign: the curtain of LED lights surrounding it assimilates the features of its environment (lights adjust to the weather, time of night or day, reflections on the river).

Competition │ Dubrovnik │ Croatia │ 2013

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

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.

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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.

Competition │ Sant Adrià de Besòs │ Spain│ 2015

Passatge Besòs 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.

Delivered│ Shanghai │ China │ 2011

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

There is a liquid intensity in Chinese life, where space is occupied like water, always filling hollows. If a mountain emerges, the water is driven elsewhere. In the West, things are planned, directed. There, to borrow a concept used by François Julien, it’s all about availability: enabling appropriation, breathing space, not projecting pre-defined uses. The occupation of the urban territory, the urban intensity is liquid, not fixed. This makes Shanghai a very vibrant city, made up of something other than stone and steel. For the moment, the Chinese are able to balance the increasing internationalisation of their cities with something so liquid that the sensory experience at their heart remains the same. The quality of their cities and their architecture has more to do with experiences than frozen images. Do they have more beautiful, or more monumental buildings? No, but they are much more alive.

In progress | Orléans | France | 2013

The limit between private and public spaces extends far beyond the legal definitions. It also includes topics such as passing from one space to the other, and the feelings or atmospheres generated by their proximity. This limit implies a certain depth: public space>>public-communal limit>>communal space>>communal-private limit>>private space>>public-private limit>>public space. Our objective is to work with this depth by making it simultaneously opaque or porous while respecting security standards.

In progress | Shanghai, Manilla, Singapour, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur… | since 2015

Creating an itinerant exhibition in the shape of ten boxes inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise (Box in a Suitcase).

Consultation │ Paris │ France │ 2015

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.

Delivered│ Vanves │ France │ 2015

Delivery of entrance hall, indoor furniture and signage.

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 –

Delivered │ Rouen │ France │ 2017

Delivery of a chandelier for the Métropole Rouen Normandie.

Competition │ Paris │ France │ 2015

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture, Terrell Ingénierie, Franck Boutté Consultants, Structure Production and Town Partners

“Imagine the dream of rediscovered fluidity and porosity. Something built on the transformation of time, objects, bodies, and not based on permanent confrontation. On the contrary: a sense of permanence, yes: a contemporary place for bartering. A place for making ‘deals’, where knowledge is traded for lack of knowledge. Material is traded for the immaterial.
Imagine spending time in a ‘mixer’ where, for example, you come across performances the moment you come out of work. Or before getting to work.
Writing workshops during a lunch break, which continue in private during ‘working hours’ and finish in a group of 200 in the public space. Imagine that a poem could be used as currency. Or ten minutes of dancing.
The spaces where we eat should be participative. 20 minutes peeling vegetables would earn you a free soup.
We must draw inspiration from the pawn shops of old: deposit something which can be used for a short time in exchange for a small sum of money. This small sum of money can be used to acquire something else. Drop off a drill to acquire a sandwich.
We must take inspiration from sociologist Marcel Mauss and his study on gifts and counter-gifts. I give you something and you give something in return with a slight surplus. This surplus enables me to give the next person slightly more in exchange for a little less. Etc.
We need to imagine other economies not strictly based on the exchange of money. Watching a show and helping to clear up afterwards. Visiting an artist’s studio and making them something to eat afterwards. Inviting a philosopher, a scientist, a journalist, an athlete over and making them something to eat. Or singing for them. Food and thought go hand in hand.
Kitchens should allow all artistic forms to permeate through them: poetry, performance, theatre, dance, art, music, cinema, revues. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Art needs to be part of everyday life. Part of social life.
We should be able to rest, take a nap, in a space where artists are working.
We should be able to sleep in a sculptor’s workshop. Or a choreographer’s.
We should be able.
We should be able to do things that aren’t the done things. We should do everything that seems impossible.
We need to open up. Open up. Open up. We now need to find another way of ‘plugging into’ the networks of life.
And, in charge, we should have women, young people, and all the diversity of France.”
Pascal Rambert, author, stage director, film director, choreographer and Artistic Director of Gennevilliers theatre.

Competition | Avignon | France | 2012

with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

“For a collector’s attitude toward his possessions stems from an owner’s feeling of responsibility toward his property. Thus it is, in the highest sense, the attitude of an heir, and the most distinguished trait of a collection will always be its transmissibility.” Walter Benjamin

For us, the Lambert collection in Avignon is much more than a contemporary art museum. It is, first and foremost, a place that tells a story: the story of an encounter between one of the greatest gallery owners and collectors of contemporary art and one of France’s greatest cities. What the visitor should feel entering this museum is not only the wealth and the beauty of the 450 works it holds. They must also feel the passion of a collector. Very early on, this passion drove Yvon Lambert to discover great geniuses of contemporary art and to introduce them to a wider audience. This collection also reveals a mirror image of its author. It shares with us his choices and his vision of art.

We believe that the great collectors are those who contribute to major cultural policies. They are those who have put their talent at the service of the common good. That is why this collection must now be understood through the lens of its donation to the city of Avignon, with its buildings steeped in history and light. The collection also tells the story of these listed buildings, their conservation and transformation. Their ability to open their doors to the present. This is the encounter that our project aims to reveal, making this space one of the most important contemporary art museums in the region, just as the Fondation Maeght Pour l’Art Moderne or the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland have been.

In terms of the programme, a contemporary art museum raises the issue of the status of not only the artworks but also the space they inhabit. It must be able to showcase works in a wide variety of media, all needing to be displayed and conserved in very different ways. We believe that gallery spaces should be at the service of the artworks. So, we have designed the galleries as ‘exhibition machines’. The 2,600 m2 of exhibition space, spread over three levels, is made up of flexible spaces – open or partitioned depending on the nature of the works. This organization of the space will create an architectural promenade, guiding visitors through a range of atmospheres and moments. Write a few words about the construction of these flexible spaces.

Delivered | Paris | France | 2011

For the ‘La Parisienne’ event presented at the Galeries Lafayette, from 1 April to 4 June 2011, the Gallery of Galleries invited Sofia Achaval and Thibault de Montaigu to imagine the apartment of a fictional Parisian woman. The couple brought together a team of writers to recreate the story and personality of this Parisienne. The novelist and art critic Catherine Millet will choose her art collection; the artist and writer Valérie Mréjen will capture her thoughts by leaving a number of messages scattered around the apartment; composer Bertrand Burgalat will imagine her musical choices; sculptor Laetitia Benat will reveal her artistic side, while Annelies Strba will revisit her past and an actor will lend his famous voice to romantic answerphone messages. The whole scene will be composed by scenographer Pauline Marchetti.

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In progress | Limoux | France | 2016
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture

Delivered | Beijing | China | 2016
with Jacques Ferrier Architecture and TER

The building stretches across the site like a continuous whole, marking out the various courtyards and creating alignments along the roads. It offers students and teachers spaces that are both protected and open, with the landscape always present as a backdrop. The ground floor plays host to all the communal areas and shared functions: united below an awning, the common spaces on the different floors alternate with inner courtyards. All the outdoor spaces open onto the canteen’s orchard and the sports facilities.

The main building is clad in a wooden mesh which seems to float above the verdant surroundings with their lines of fruit trees. From the inside, the openwork mesh provides a view of the exterior and lets in light. It plays a major role in protecting the building from the sun, as well as protecting the privacy of the activities taking place inside. It develops a serene, innovative and easily identifiable architectural character, inspired by traditional Chinese architecture.

Competition | Cergy Pontoise | France | 2016

The CIC scenography immerses the visitor in the innovative world of 3M. Health, electronics, signage systems and energy are all connected; they all draw on the same creative dynamic used to identify our needs and develop solutions to improve productivity and quality of life. Unlike a product-by-product presentation, our design highlights synergies and links between materials and technologies. Like a Russian doll, one 3M product reveals another product solution. The CIC is a journey through matter itself, where inventiveness is applied across the board, in every technology and product, defying all categorization. The CIC is a unique space for discovering 3M products. The experience starts outside the building. The visitor encounters strange, poetic, mysterious objects. Nothing is revealed, but everything invites us to discover more. Inside, the visitor enters semi-enclosed, more intimate spaces, where they can discover products in a more personal setting. Here the scenography defines the conditions of the encounter: this is about developing a unique relationship with products by showing them in a setting that both highlights and protects their value. This system, born of a combination of 3M materials, design and architecture, offers the visitor space for thought and inspiration, where they can focus on each product without being interrupted by external distractions.

Delivered | Paris | France | 2014

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.

Competition first price | Shanghai | China | 2016

with TER

It is a story: in the guise of a ribbon, the narrative falls into place. It develops around a river, evoking Pudong’s identity and sense of place. The river’s role is restored, with its ability to soothe, to make us dream, to take us on a journey. While the city changes, the water continues to flow, ever serene. The ribbon unfurls between the urban frenzy and the serenity of the river banks. A transitional space, a porous through-way, it embodies that precious and inextricable link between nature and construct. Elegant and benevolent, it invites us to follow its familiar yet surprising course. We feel its presence as a reassurance, we enjoy slipping away to stroll along it, stopping to take it in, crossing over it. A colonnade, a singular, dynamic object which gives this business district an opportunity to re-connect with its urban character. In this vertical district, where the Oriental Pearl Tower reaches skyward, it introduces a horizontality which focuses on innovation and usage. The street returns to life, the scale of time and space plays with temporality, diversity and audiences. For the Sensual City Studio, history is made step by step, along a series of projects and encounters. Shanghai fascinates and intrigues us. It invites us to re-think ‘otherness’: going beyond oneself, this incredible complexity becomes a creative driver to ‘make’ the city. Alchemy is at work, mixing together a unique sense of freedom, exploration and adaptability. The strength of the project is, without a doubt, linked to the need to build trust between the people driving it forward. Because building a city is a quintessentially human ambition.

Delivered | France | 2014

“A little tenderness and pleasure should be re-introduced to the relationship with contemporary urban reality.” Jacques Ferrier

Ligne Roset has produced 260 Aluchair chairs, designed by Jacques Ferrier and Pauline Marchetti to furnish the French Pavilion in Shanghai, and has been distributing them ever since, to make them available to the public. Like Jean Prouvé before them, Ferrier and Marchetti sought to capture the timeless authenticity of useful objects. Their belief is that everyday objects are sensual when they are simple, familiar, solid… Developing this idea, they imagined a chair that can be used indoors and out. The stainless steel and aluminium base supports a perforated seat that can be covered with a range of wool pads. Here, the senses are connected to comfort and wellbeing.

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Indoor / outdoor model distributed by Ligne Roset.
Comfort: Laser-cut aluminium structure, front foot in curved stainless steel, the whole finished in mastic, argile or elephant-coloured satin-finish lacquer. Injected plastic seat/back finished in mastic or agile satin-finish lacquer. The seat and back are pierced. Aside from the decorative effect, this provides a degree of flexibility which optimizes comfort and enables rain to drain when used outside.
Cover: As an option, a matching wool pad may be added to the seat. The 300g/m3, 5 mm thick pads come in grège, grey or anthracite..
This removable pad clips into three grooves in the frame using stitched in rubber rings.

In progress | France | 2016

Création d’un motif pour une gamme de dalle textile.

Competition | Xi’an | China | 2014

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 develops a conceptual vision for the experimental team Sensual City Studio since 2011. Involved in the exploration of urban development from her researches in the Why Factory at TUDelft University and at Urban Emergencies in China. She graduated from the University of Alicante in 2011 and received a bursary from the Arquia College of Architecture in Spain for her academic career.

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

Elisa Alvarez, Architect, Project Leader

Fabien Goutelle, Graphic Designer

François Gastesoleil, Architect

Clémentin Rachet, Architect

Annika Skaaning, Architect, Trainee

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

Gianni Villa, Architect, Trainee

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

Pauline Delmotte, Architect, Trainee

Youen Chene, Designer

Juliette Guichard, Architect, Trainee

Melissa Lalanne, Architect, Trainee

Matt Piker, Architect

Pierre Delpech, Architect, Trainee

Hugo Badia, Architect

Hélène Bechet, Geographer, Urbanist

Guillaume Bloget, Designer

Mathilde Benhamou, Architect

Mahault Remusat, Designer, Trainee

Manuela Sauvage, Scenographer, Trainee

Camila Leone, Graphic Designer, Trainee

Jean-Baptiste Cochet, Architect, Trainee

Mathilde Van Steenkiste, Architect