As part of Agora 2010, arc en rêve centre d’architecture presents an exhibition entitled construction on the latest work by the du Besset-Lyon firm of architects.
“Since the invention of advertising and urban display methods, pictures, signs and messages posted on buildings have been of interest to both architects and artists. Although these processes are indeed interesting, they nevertheless pose problems of meaning and durability. Today, who would want to put in place a fixed, durable image with a deep, non-ironic meaning referring to a project? Such an image would constitute a model, a reference, and a kind of moral.”
Pierre du Besset (born in 1949) and Dominique Lyon (born in 1954) created their firm in Paris in 1988. Their design for the Orléans media library (1994), with its façades devoid of hierarchy, represents in formal and organizational terms a new kind of public facility that marked a significant new departure in architectural thought.
Since then, they have designed and built a number of unique public buildings that are both visually powerful and well-known for their high-quality features: libraries and media libraries, offices and residential buildings, industrial facilities, interiors and scenographic projects. This exhibition presents seven selected projects, not all of them actually built, via large-scale models presented like sculptures and accompanied by drawings, pictures and videos.