Villa Noailles

Systèmes des Objets is a response to the need to stage events and cultural activities in a given space and time, but above all, it is an independent research project, a learning experiment on space and how it is occupied.

Each edition brings in various protagonists: architecture students, high school students, architects and visitors. The protocol is based on the use of a single material (XPS board) which is stacked, cut, machined, bonded, etc. to produce modules and objects.

The experiment creates a space in time in which it is made possible to examine different aspects of the architect's work, in terms of both design (intuition, replica, displacement, scale, etc.) and reception (appropriation, transformation, reference, etc.).

By showing the design and construction processes behind architecture, the practice itself is placed under the lens, allowing the architect to share their hesitations and successes, and to multiply their deliberations of form and space before an audience of users. This is possible thanks to its institutional framework, freed from the constraints of the ‘everyday practice of architecture’.

‘If we want to respond to the multiplicity in which society manifests itself we must liberate form from the shackles of coagulated meanings. We must continuously search for archetypal forms which, because they can be associated with multiple meaning, can not only absorb a programme but can also generate one’.

Heman Hertzberger, Lessons for Students in Architecture, 1991

In Part 4 of the Systèmes des Objets project, the structures and objects produced in the spaces at Villa Noailles, coinciding with the Landskating and Villa La Reine-Jeanne - Barry Dierks Architecte exhibitions, are both scenographic supports and autonomous elements in dialogue with the content and spaces of Villa Noailles. They obey a number of design principles, both historical and intuitive. Serving at times as models, added elements, document holders or repairs, they are always spatial attempts intended to challenge the terms of their environment.

- Curated by: Sébastien Martinez Barat, Benjamin Lafore, Audrey Teichmann, Damien Roger