Here, immense buildings rise up like the characters of a silent movie, there, constructions develop within themselves out of a strictly premeditated mode of composition whilst, further on, vast panoramas stretch out, measuring up to the scale of the land, the peaks of enigmatic towers, fractured rocks, uplifts and the motionless waltz of fragmented tectonic plates.
“Figures,” “Objects,” “Landscapes”: this book invites you on a journey through the recent projects and creations of Frédéric Borel, winner of the Grand Prix National de l’Architecture in 2010. You will learn how these formal devices, regardless of their function, work their way into the most diverse contexts—dense town centres, dormant open spaces, distant megalopolises—and give them back their magic. And you will discover the secrets of how they were designed, by observing the architect at work, adjusting and assembling the cardboard pieces needed to make the numerous models that have taken over his studio. They mirror, with the greatest of detail, the architecture that will breathe new life back into this 20th-century urban legacy, restoring the emotion and poetry they appear to be so cruelly lacking.

Contents

Fictions
Richard Scoffier

In the Heart of the City
Jean Nouvel

FIGURES
Narbonne
Poincaré
Ensapvs
Béthune
Villeneuve-Saint‑Georges

OBJECTS
Beijing
Rouen
Dijon – Saint-Apollinaire
Boucicaut
Quai Branly
Seoul
Aubusson
VSG Saint-Exupéry

LANDSCAPES
Nogent
Masséna
Mont-Saint-Aignan
Besançon
Grand-Quevilly
Aquaboulevard
Sextant
Ris-Orangis
Aubervilliers
Toulouse
Grenoble

Full Freedom. An Interview with Frédéric Borel
Francis Rambert

Catalogue raisonné