ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Having a roof, a shelter, a home; having a living environment that contributes to our individual well-being as well as to the collective well-being of human beings, in harmony with nature… a need that seems legitimate but is far from straightforward. Today’s architecture faces a number of major challenges: climate challenges linked to global warming; ecological challenges, notably around reusable or increasingly scarce materials; and social and political challenges, such as reconstruction in war zones or the problem of housing shortages. These issues are challenges for our societies today, in both East and West.  “There can be no architecture without inhabitants.” This statement by Vanessa Lacaille and Mounir Ayoub might seem self-evident at first. But “with the commodification of building production—and particularly of housing—it has become a consumer product, and inhabitants have become anonymous consumers.”  The two founders of LA (le laboratoire d’architecture) have chosen to place people and their living context at the heart of their practice, notably through their award-winning project Bled el Abar, an initiative to restore water points in the Tunisian Sahara in collaboration with local communities, drawing on existing resources. Its goal is to preserve life—both human and non-human—in the desert.  Vanessa Lacaille studied architecture in Paris and Eindhoven. After completing a master’s degree in 2007, she went on to study at the École du paysage de Versailles, where she earned a second master’s degree in landscape theory and design in 2010. Mounir Ayoub studied architecture in Tunis, Paris and Mendrisio. After completing a master’s degree in 2006, he continued his training at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. From 2015 to 2020, he was an editor for the journal Tracés. Moderated by: Isabelle Pannatier, former director of the Centre artistique et culturel de la Ferme-Asile, member of the ROO programming committee With Rencontres Orient-Occident Free admission