Good evening.
OK, I've waited
for the GSD time.
It's 6:37, so we can start now.
So I am here to welcome
a creative powerhouse,
spirited breaker of rules, and
a vocal advocate of equality.
That's how the jury
praised Odile Decq in 2016
when she won the Jane Drew
Prize for women in architecture.
It's an extremely
important prize.
Previous winners, just to
give you an idea, had--
the previous winners
just before her
had been Grafton Architects and
just before that, Zaha Hadid.
So it's a very important moment.
And I like this
advocate of equality.
The jury also pointed out that
a survey done just the year
before in 2015--
a worldwide survey
of over 1,000 women--
revealed that 72% had
experienced discrimination
or harassment
within architecture.
Within the profession
of architecture.
And the numbers
are not going down.
They're going up.
The breaker of rules part--
so we need an advocate.
The breaker of rules
part, it seems,
started young, as a child.
This is a story I read.
I read that when
you told your father
you wanted to be an architect,
he said, non, c'est impossible.
He said girls don't
become architects.
This patriarchal
opposition she would
convert later into a more
systematic resistance
through architecture itself.
If my calculation of
the numbers are correct,
Odile would have witnessed
the events of May 1968,
but as a pre-teen.
No?
Not even.
Not even born.
OK.
But maybe then
the consequences--
the consequences of some
of the May 1968 events
were that the Ecole
des Beaux Arts
was dispersed in pedagogic
units across Paris.
She did attend UP-6,
the one in La Villette.
And, again, I get them mixed up.
But some of them were so radical
that they hardly held classes.
I don't know if UP-6 was--
that Pedagogical Unit
6 was one of these.
And, subsequently, she studied
urbanism at Sciences Po.
But that's old history.
It was really in
London, in the 1980s,
that she came to her own,
let's say, in architecture.
She founded her studio in
1978 in London at first--
in Paris.
In Paris.
And then, by the 1990s,
the work had exploded.
And that's when Odile
Decq became Odile Decq.
For the work in the '90s, she
won the Golden Lion in Venice
in 1996.
After the turn of
the Millennium,
the work-- the
projects-- got larger,
the work got more diverse.
It also got more international.
She now has projects
in China, in Italy,
some of the recent projects.
But the new millennium also
produced a new desire--
pedagogy.
Odile founded her own
international school in Lyon
in 2007.
It opened in 2014.
It's experimental.
It's transdisciplinary.
I was with her this
afternoon in a review,
and we are getting some
of that pedagogy here in--
that experimental
pedagogy in her studio.
The school is
called Confluence--
sorry, Confluence
Institute for Innovation
and Creative Strategies
in Architecture.
And the school, as I understand
it, like the architect,
aims to disrupt.
Original, radical,
rule-breaking--
I witnessed it today--
a generous advocate.
We need more architects like
her, and we welcome her.
Thanks for that, Michael.
What a generous presentation.
So, yes, first of
all, I have to say
that I'm very glad
to be in the GSD,
because I am experimenting--
my first time teaching here,
my first time lecturing here.
So, everything is
first time for me.
And I'm glad to do that.
And I find the atmosphere
of this school very cool.
You know?
I love the atmosphere
of this school.
I don't know why, but
you are very unique.
You have-- it's such
a privilege to learn
and to be in such a space.
This is fantastic, and the
atmosphere is very nice.
So thank you, Michael,
to invite me to come.
I'm very glad.
So my title is
"Architecture Thinking."
Why?
Because, as many people
from some years now,
I was talking before
about design thinking.
You know what is
design thinking.
Everybody was talking
about design thinking.
And so I was using that too.
And after two, three
years, I was thinking,
why saying only design?
Why not talking
about architecture?
Because I strongly
believe that architecture
is much more powerful
than only design.
Because if you think about--
because it is unique.
Architecture is a really unique
field, a unique discipline,
a culture on itself.
And with architecture,
we can help the world.
We can because we
are problem solvers.
We are people unique.
Why?
Because when you are
facing a problem--
a question-- in architecture,
whatever the question is,
we have to convoke
all the disciplines.
We have to convoke art,
philosophy, history,
architecture, geography,
geology, sociology, whatever.
Regulation, everything.
We have to convoke everything
to understand the complexity
and to work and to analyze
this complex situation.
And from that, we have to be
able to make a proposal-- first
to do a diagnosis and
to make a proposal.
And this proposal has
to be able to work
from a very little scale to the
bigger one-- to the larger one.
And this is a unique
attitude, a unique culture,
a unique discipline
which is able to do that.
So, thanks to that,
we are unique.
When you are studying
architecture, this is unique.
And if you apply-- if
we apply that, not only
being architects, but
if we are applying
that on many, many questions,
many problems, we can help.
We can make proposals.
We can propose
something for the world.
And we have to speak about
architecture thinking
to re-implant architecture as
a central core in the world,
because this is so important.
So, first of all, I want to
show you some installations,
because I'm applying
architecture to many things.
So I do installations sometimes.
So the first one that
I want to show you
is one from 2004 at an
artist's space in New York.
They asked me to come
and to do something.
And they said, you
don't show architecture.
You are not presenting project.
I said, OK.
So I installed a little
cabinet in that place
which was a little corner
in the space where--
in that cabinet.
OK.
So in that cabinet.
The floor is not flat,
is not horizontal.
You have to enter with
a ramp and the floor
continues in ramp.
The cabinet itself has walls,
but the walls are not vertical.
They are sometimes--
they're all oblique.
Never vertical and not regular.
Some are painted in the white.
Some are covered with mirrors.
As soon as you enter in it, on
the one, covered by painting,
I projected images--
images of my project but
it's not only architecture.
And because of the
reflection into the mirror,
you discover new spaces.
So space is changing.
The perception of the space
is absolutely [inaudible]..
So the space that you believe--
you see in between these two
parts, the two sides of
the image, is not existing,
is the reflection of something
else, which is on your back.
And because you were
on an oblique surface,
you don't know where--
you don't process,
in a way, the limit
between the floors,
the wall, there
is a different wall
in between them.
So I called that in 2004
virtual space between real.
Because you don't know what
is this space and how it is.
And I like to play with
that ambiguity of perception
of the space.
In 2007, I was renovating an
art gallery close to my office,
and the man who is the
owner of the gallery
told me that I will be the
first exhibiting in the gallery.
I said, I am not an
artist, I'm an architect.
He said, OK, but you
will be the first one.
So, I remembered, at this
time, a little sketch
that I was doing to some people
in my office to explain what
I call dynamic equilibrium.
Equilibrium could be reached
with two columns and a beam.
It's easy, it's
simple, it's stable.
But I like when something
is unstable, looks unstable.
So when you have
just one column,
you have to estimate how to
make equilibrium between two
strengths, two forces.
So we built that
with two balloons.
One is a balloon of air,
two meters diameter.
And the other one is
a balloon of-- it's
just a bubble in aluminum
filled with sand.
And in between them,
the beam that you see
is 6 centimeters
by 6 centimeters.
It is 6 meters long.
And the column is 6
centimeter by 6 centimeter,
one above the other
without fixation.
So we had to calculate
with our engineers
the precise position
of this point where we
install the beam on the column.
And we had to fill at
the ends with sand, grain
by grain, to reach equilibrium.
And when you were to feel the
instability of this equilibrium
by walking into the
space, because the balloon
of air is filling the space--
when you are walking on the
side, the air is moving.
So the balloon is
moving a little bit.
And you feel that this
stability is nearly unstable.
And I like this idea of
being always unstable, always
in movement.
In France, we have a
garden festival every year,
and there are thematics.
And in 2009, they announce
the thematic of colors.
And somebody in my office said,
why not propose a black garden?
I said, OK, why
not a black garden?
So we did then propose
a black garden.
We did the black installation,
and we have been chosen.
We have been selected.
And we built its [? sides ?]
with sheets of glass--
black glass-- and filling
the floor with powder--
tire powder.
Very thick.
15 centimeters thickness.
And in the middle, a little
surface of water on a black
surface.
To have a silentious garden.
Because the thematic of
the garden, as I said,
the official was colors.
So everybody all around
were using multiple colors
everywhere.
It was very noisy of colors.
And I wanted that in my garden,
everybody was silentious.
So because of this tire powder
on the floor, when you come in,
all the sound is absorbed.
If you come with somebody, you
want to talk to him or her,
and you can't listen,
because all the sound was
absorbed by the floor.
And so this is a very
simple installation.
But thanks to the
sun, the impression--
its sense of perception,
because of the reflection,
because of that loss of
reflection in between them,
between the reflections
of the trees et cetera.
So it was a place of
silence and reflection.
In SCI ARC in 2011, they
asked me to do something
in the exhibition room.
And when architects
usually build an object,
I created a new space.
And the space is very simple.
Four triangles equilateral.
But the walls are not vertical.
Everything inside is
covered with mirrors.
The space pass-- the
passage between the spaces
is not at the same place.
So when you come in,
as you see from above,
when you come in you see the
object, which is inclined.
And inside, you don't
perceive what is the space.
You can't understand the
space because, again,
of the reflection.
You don't know
where are the limits
between the walls, the floor.
So, is it a door, a passage?
Or is it just a
reflection of another one.
Where are the passage?
So you have to play.
You enjoy being there, because
you have to find your own way
and you don't understand
what is the size, the space--
the form of the space.
And I love to play with
that, as I said before.
And in Milan, every year
in the furniture fair,
they ask in a
university in the garden
to architects,
artists, and designers,
to do something with a factory.
And they asked me to work
with a factory of ceramic,
And they wanted to
propose ceramics,
which were three meters
long and one meter wide,
but only with three
millimeters thickness.
And they wanted
me-- or they were
thinking that I will
show that as a floor
and walls, et cetera.
But I wanted to
express a thickness--
the extreme thickness of
the ceramic by making--
sending them up,
crossing sheets of--
still to maintain them
vertical, to build like a cube.
But cutting the cube
with, like, a balloon
passing through, to
be able to come in
and to walk on the edge
of the ceramic, which
is 3 millimeters thin.
So architecture, because
I do architectural also.
So first, Macro, the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Rome,
that I won in 2000 and
finished and delivered in 2010.
So this is-- is it?
OK.
So we are here.
This is the extension
of this part, which
was just renovated in these two
old buildings with a courtyard.
And this site is 3,000
square meters of footprint.
We are at the corner
of two streets.
And there was an entrance
here, and then we
have to create a
new entrance here.
So I decided to
cover all the site
with a roof that fills all the
site, to create a new entrance
here at this corner, to
install the main exhibition
room of 1,000 square
meters at the corner--
simple-- to have in
the middle a foyer,
to have in the middle of
the foyer is the auditorium.
Above the auditorium, a glass
surface with a fountain.
It's a fountain because
there's water running on it.
To leave a little bit of a hole
into the ceiling with a garden,
with trees.
And to maintain what I
was asked to maintain,
this structure with a roof.
We are at the corner
of the two streets.
And this is the new entrance.
And the glass box here is a
cafe, because we are in Rome
and in Rome in every
street there are cafes.
And you go to drink
coffees everywhere.
So I wanted to have the
coffee in the street.
There is no coffee
at the moment.
So the entrance is to
come into the cafe.
The glass box is suspended
to the existing facade
that they had to
keep at both sides.
And to come in, you have to pass
under the cafe without columns.
So the box is flying above.
And you have to cross
the little garden
with the trees [? growing ?]
very fast to the roof
to enter into the foyer.
And the foyer is black.
Everything inside is black.
It's the first time that I use
black in one of my buildings.
I know that everybody believes
that I build in black,
but this is my first
building in black.
And, if you look carefully about
the floor, the floor is basalt.
And basalt is a stone which is
used in the pavement in Rome.
So the city is coming into--
the city is coming into--
this is back.
I want to go back, but I
don't know how to go back.
There is no way to go back.
Doesn't matter.
So this is--
I don't-- no mistake.
So the floor is a
continuity of the street.
So this is a public space,
internal public space,
which is running everywhere.
And in the middle of that,
we have the auditorium.
So, the new part of
the museum is installed
between two surfaces--
the surfaces of the
floor, of the foyer, which
is internal public
space, and the surfaces
which is above the
external public space.
And in between, we
have another layer,
which is this surface, which
is a promenade at mid-level
into the foyer.
Passrails that helps to go--
that drive you to go
above the auditorium.
And with a fountain above
and with water running on it.
And the auditorium
is non-regularly
shaped, specially
shaped irregular
to be able to give the
impression that it is a little
bit unstable.
And digging the floor
down to install lighting.
And the last director
installed mattress
underneath with little
video screen here.
And the kids were laying
under the auditorium
to watch the video collection
under the auditorium.
And the auditorium is
painted in red outside.
And you can enter in
it using this ramp.
And inside, everything is red.
This is the heart of the place,
a place where you gather,
a place where you meet, a place
where you discuss about video,
about cinema, about art.
And the city asked
me at one point
during the development
of the project
if I wanted to
design everything.
And we decided to
design everything,
including the seats,
including the lighting system,
including-- so it's a
global, total project.
And the main exhibition
room that I told you
is 1,000 square meters,
and in the brief,
which was very little, they
asked for different heights
in the space because they
didn't know at the beginning
that it will have been a
contemporary art museum.
They were thinking of
having performances
to having theater to having
dance ballet, et cetera.
So they asked for
different heights.
So it goes from places where
you have 11 meters high to,
on this side, 7 meters high.
And in between, you
have this passrail,
which is coming from the foyer,
traveling along the wall going
up to the terrace.
So this is a possibility to
visit and to exhib-- to look at
and to watch the
exhibition, which
is down from this passrail.
It's another layer of promenade
under the structure, which
is quite heavy because
I didn't want to have
any columns in the museum.
This is just a flying roof, as
I said, supported by the wall
in between the foyer and the the
exhibition room and the pyramid
tile walls.
Above, this is a huge space.
This is a place, a
square, a public square.
Because you can come
from the former entrance,
across the courtyard,
take a ramp,
come here, travel this space,
take a stair somewhere there,
and go back to the street.
So you can traverse
the museum above.
That means that this place
becomes a public square
for the surrounding area.
And this is more than a
public space because--
a public place because
there is a fountain
and there is a restaurant and
there's a cafe with a terrace.
So this is a place where
you can stay as everywhere
in the square in Rome,
sitting outside in front
of the restaurant in
front of a fountain.
And we designed the lamps
for the terrace also.
And the cafe is
multicolor floors.
I don't use only black.
This is multicolor
floor for the cafe.
And by having the cafe at
the mid-level and the terrace
above with the restaurant,
that means that the floor down
is at the level of the usual
entrance of every building.
So the floor is as the museum--
the entrance to the museum--
is at the level of the entrance
of every building around.
But the cafe is in
the street, but it's
at the mid-level
of the building.
So the people from the first
floor and the second floor--
the second floor
and the subfloor
are at the level of the cafe.
And the people who
are living above
are at the level of the
public square above.
So everybody is taking
in account the spaces
of the museum in front of them.
Toilets.
I love to design toilets.
Because this is the only
space in a building where
you don't have regulation.
Think about that.
So you can experiment.
You can play with toilets,
with the space of a toilet.
So my toilets in the museum
are like a container covered
by stainless steel mirrors
outside and inside, in stalls
and over all structures.
In the middle of the space,
you have this huge space,
and at the extremity of
both sides we have mirrors.
So the space is repeated
infinitely into these mirrors.
And I did this experiment of
space in a reference to a movie
by Jacques Tati, Playtime And in
Playtime that Jacques Tati did
in the '60s, mid '60s,
he was expressing
the ultra modernity of the
cities which were coming.
And he did a movie where
everything in the city
is smooth, flat, bright,
no asperity, no rugosity.
And the main character, who
is played by Jacques Tati,
is walking into the city.
And at one point
at the beginning,
he enters into an
offices building,
and he's wearing laser
soles under his shoes.
And because he is
wearing leather soles
and he's walking on a steel
floor, it makes noise.
Click, clack, click, clack.
And I think, OK, this is
nice for playing with that.
So I designed
everything in steel.
So the floors, the
walls, and the ceiling
are in stainless steel mirror.
And inside in the infinity
space, doing into the mirrors.
In the middle of
the space, there
is this object, which is
a parallelpiped white,
and in glass.
And above it, there is a kind
of landscape in depression.
This is the only place where
you can wash your hands,
but you don't know how to do it.
So you have to go
there, and you start
to make dancing
your hands above.
And as soon as you
cross an infrared ray,
the cubes becomes--
the room becomes red,
and the water is coming up.
And if you make dancing
your hands at the corner,
the dryer is coming up, too.
So you play, yourself, and you
become actors in the toilets
when you are going to make
toilets in the museum.
Everybody's smiling
when they get out.
So, I love to design toilets.
In Paris, I received a call
once when I was in a weekend
from somebody who was the
management of a new restaurant
in l'Opera Garnier, which
where there were never
have been a restaurant,
to do a restaurant
under this cupola, which was
an open space where the horse
carriages were coming in before.
And after that it has
been a depositor storage,
so it has been
absolutely in despair.
So they wanted to establish
a restaurant there.
And I discovered
that, as soon as--
he told me that, OK, he
wants to work with me,
he had a recommendation from
the Ministry of Culture,
because this is more--
it is the most protected
historical monument in France,
because it has been untouched
since Charles Garnier did it
in the middle of
the 19th century.
And Charles Garnier not
only did the building,
but he designed the facade
of the buildings all around.
So this is a public
space, protected,
and a museum and a
building, protected.
So I had to--
for enclosing the space I had to
create a facade with the space
which was open to the outside.
And it was forbidden to create
a facade, because the minister
of culture said, don't create--
don't put glass
here, because you
will do a facade with
arches or with columns
that Charles Garnier didn't do.
I said, OK.
So I had to create a new floor,
because the space was not
big enough.
And they told me,
don't create a floor,
because Charles
Garnier didn't do.
OK, Charles Garnier didn't
do, but I have to do it.
So, it was the only
place-- and as I said,
you can't touch the columns,
you can't touch the cupola,
you can't touch the wall.
You can only touch the floor.
OK.
So I started by doing--
I have to close, so I started
by doing this sinuous line
behind the columns.
Because I know how
to work with glass,
I was thinking that
by creating volumes
of sheets of glass, sinuous,
they will be self-stable.
And anchored to the floor,
they could be self-stable.
And if I use a very
clear glass, they
will not see that
there is-- they will
see that there is no facade.
OK, so it was agreed.
After that, I had to
create a mezzanine.
So I continued to
[? sinuous ?] the lines,
and this without
touching the columns,
without touching the walls.
And this-- the
position of this line
was a long
negotiation between me
and the National Commission
for Historical Monuments,
because they wanted that I
go back, because they wanted
to-- that people coming
into the restaurant
will see that they are
entering into the cupola,
because they will see
the center of the cupola.
So this line has
been a negotiation.
At the end they agree,
and it's like that.
So this is sheets of glass,
coming up, undulating,
coming up to six meters
high, at the height
of the [? corniche. ?] And then
other sheets of glass above.
An in between them,
two maintain them
in place, this little
piece of steel.
Inside, the mezzanine is built
in steel structure, covered--
surrounding by molded plaster.
And when doing that, I had
to push back my columns
close to the other columns
without touching them,
because I didn't want
that I have any columns
in the middle of the cupola.
So that means at this
part of the mezzanine
is in cantilever of 10 meters.
And by doing that
system of construction,
I did exactly as
Charles Garnier.
Because Charles
Garnier did the project
by winning a
competition in 1950.
And he was 35 years old when
he won this competition.
And he was modern for his time.
So he decided to build
the structure in steel.
So what you look
at as stone columns
is a steel structure
surrounded by stones.
And in between, there are the
shafts for the ventilation
and heating system.
So I did exactly the same.
A steel structure,
surrounded by--
I don't know to go back, sorry--
surrounded by molded plaster
with everything technical
inside and having that turning
and twisting with this molding
plaster with acoustic
plaster, et cetera--
different kind of plaster--
to make it absorbing, because
of the [? mineralization ?]
of the space.
The floor, the walls, et cetera.
I wanted to have an
absorbing system.
And in the back, there is a
lounge with a long sinuous
bench or sofa, if you
want, with the doors
coming to the foyer
of the Opera directly.
And underneath, it's like being
under an animal, a very strange
animal.
Everything is red and white.
And the lighting system--
the lighting devices--
are in the pocket in
the legs of the animal,
because I didn't want to look at
and to see any technical device
in the building,
because they were not
seen from Charles Garnier.
And everything in the mezzanine
is red, the seats and tables
and the benches and the sofas.
There are a mirrors to express--
to enhance the
impression of space.
And, if you look
carefully about the sides,
the top of the
glass, it has been
cut depending on the cupola.
And every sheet of
glass is different.
The curve is different and the
cut is different at the end.
And this is not
anchored into the stone,
because between the
glass and the stones
there are 4 centimeters
of silicon joints.
I did also make another
museum in France,
in Rennes, in Brittany.
And it's in a park, a new
park, in a new development
area where there were
before this piece of art.
And this piece of art is a
unique three-dimensional piece
of art of an artist
called Aurelie
Nemours, a French artist.
It is a unique
three-dimensional piece.
And she is working
only on numbers.
And this piece is
her number nine.
Because every stone is 4 meters
in height and have height.
The section is 72
centimeters by 81.
And the angle of the
position of the square,
because it is 72 stones, is
the specific angle online.
And she gave regulation
to the architecture.
So usually the architects
will give regulation
on architecture.
But this is an artist
who gave constraints.
She said that she wants to
have a silentious facade
for the museum, and
she wanted not to light
a piece from the building.
So I respect what
she asked, and I
decided to have a silentious
black facade with two
materials, because this
one is above-- in front
of the main exhibition
room and down this
is the lobby, the foyer.
But the height of the cut
between the two materials
is exactly the same
height as the stones.
And what you see as gray is
black stainless steel mirrored.
So because it's
mirrored, it reflects
and it plays with the sky.
So it changes
colors all the time.
Down, this is gray--
dark gray glass.
And because it's dark gray, you
perceive it black in the day.
This is how it's built. So
this is steel construction
with a cantilever with a big
structure of the main exhibit
hall attached to
the back side, which
is a concrete block,
black concrete.
But this is black
concrete, so that
means that when it's
dry weather, it's gray;
when it's humid
weather, it's black.
So this building is a
monolith-- black monolith--
with three kinds of
blacks that are changing,
depending on the weather.
So this is-- the
entrance is here.
You don't see it.
Doesn't matter.
Everybody knows.
And so this black monolith
is cut in the middle.
Like that.
And I tried to find a space
into that black monolith
by creating that.
By cutting the building,
creating a big atrium
from the roof to the
storage, eight meters below,
and having the auditorium
at the entrance,
but only the back
of the auditorium.
So when you enter,
you see the light.
You are full of light.
But you can't go into the space.
For going there-- to start
traveling the museum,
you have to go back to the
facade and start to climb
the steps--
the steps all along the facade,
in between the auditorium
and the facade.
That is transparent, and you are
referring to the piece of art
which is outside.
You go to the cafe
at the beginning.
Up into the park.
And on the back of the cafe,
you can enter the space.
And you start by
climbing some steps.
Sometimes it's a ramp,
and sometimes it's
a stair, with sheets
of steel anchored
into the concrete, just that.
And with the parapet, which
is quite heavy on the round
rails to make people not having
vertigo and being protected.
And the glass is
suspended underneath.
And you climb.
And you climb 30 meters
high for this space.
The exhibition rooms
are very simple,
because this is
places far artists.
So this isn't a place
where architects
can express themselves.
I just framed the park outside.
And, going to the top--
so the void is 30 meters high.
Open at the end to the west, so
sometimes the sun is coming in.
And toilets, again.
Black and mirror this time.
So, this is just a sinuous
mirror in between the basins--
the wash basins for
the men and women.
When you go to wash
your hands, you
look at you curved or in
the inverse of a curve.
So you never look at yourself
as you are, because you
are thicker or thinner.
Never your size.
And they find that at the
beginning very violent.
And I said, no, this is
just for people being actor.
And in the evening,
the proportion inverse,
so the the top becomes dark,
the bottom becomes lighted,
and we lighted the
auditorium, until it
becomes dark and totally black.
In Lyon, we have developed
and won a competition in 2005
and built in 2014.
And we are in the peninsula
with the confluence.
And this is [inaudible]
of the city,
with these cranes still there.
And at the end of
the peninsula I
want the position
of this building.
And these two buildings-- maybe
you heard about this building.
This is the Musee des
Confluences by Coop
Himmelb(l)au, for Prix.
And this is 2,000 square
meters of exhibition
and a huge, huge, huge space
inside for the entrance lobby.
My little building,
because [inaudible]
in comparison to him is very
tall, is 8,000 square meters.
But it's more compact.
And this building was supposed
to be a parallelpiped.
And I decided not to
do a parallelpiped--
OK, to do a parallelpiped,
but to shift
the top part of
the parallelpiped
above the riverbank.
Shifting, why?
Because I wanted to have--
this is a riverbank, and this
is a building in cantilever.
One, two, three,
four, five floors,
in cantilever above
the riverbank.
And in the middle,
I had an atrium.
So I shifted the atrium, and
the atrium is passing above.
To build that building, we built
at the beginning three pylons,
a cross of beams, perimeter
beams, and we hang everything.
So we built from the top to
the bottom, at the inverse.
Like that.
And at the end, this is
a building in cantilever,
above the river.
Above the bank of the river.
And this is 25
meters of cantilever.
And on the facade, what
you see is a picture.
It is a photo.
It's an artist piece.
Because we have been
asked, for the competition,
to work with an artist.
And I decided to work
with Felice Varini, who is
a Swiss artist living in Paris.
And this artist is
working on the question
of perspective point of view.
And he told me, when I came
to him and said, Felice,
I have a building that my
proposal is very simple.
It is a parallelpiped.
Can you transform my
perception of my building?
And he said to me,
immediately, don't
give an order to an artist.
I don't receive orders.
I said OK.
You do as you want, Felice.
You come back when you want.
So he came back to me some
weeks later or some days later--
I don't remember.
And he said, OK, architecture
is very arrogant.
Because when architecture
is installed on a landscape
or cityscape, it erases--
it erases-- the landscape
which was there before.
So I want to replace the
landscape on your building
to erase the architecture.
But in black and white.
So he took
[? virtually ?] pictures
on the top of the building,
on the four directions.
And we have here
applied the photos
of the scenery which was on the
back and the four directions
on the facade.
So you see that the
cantilever has been shifted--
shifted the auditorium.
And so that, when you
come under the building,
you see that there
is a glass ceiling.
And you look through
the building.
It's like looking through
the building in the atrium,
looking under the dress of the
building or the [inaudible]..
I know that I can't
say that in America--
excuse me, the States.
Excuse me-- I can't say that.
But I a woman, so
I can say that.
OK.
So, inside the spaces are
very big on the ground floor,
because it's good--
it's an events place.
Because it's a company who
is doing events everywhere,
managing the big events of
the world-- of World Cup,
Olympic Games--
so this is a very huge company.
And they wanted to
organize events.
So the entrance is very big.
And above the steel
structure is very present.
This is like a kind of
a very strong structure.
But everything-- all
the floors around,
all the open spaces of offices
are open to the center,
and they can communicate.
The spaces are sometimes open
spaces, sometimes closed,
with glass partitions, so
everything is transparent.
Like that.
And because we are in
an office building,
I had to face two
problems, because I didn't
want to keep the full ceiling.
Because if I had to transfer
the energy of the [inaudible]
to the slab--
there's a concrete slab.
And when you have a full
ceiling, you can't do it.
You have to keep
the false floor,
because you have to have all
the connections for the offices.
But the [inaudible],,
you could take it out.
And you have to reorganize
the system of [inaudible] very
precisely.
But after that, I have
to face two problems--
the question of acoustic and
the question of the lighting.
I can find devices for acoustic
panel or devices for lighting.
And I was thinking,
why not combining both?
And I proposed-- did a
sketch of an object which
is what I call a Petal, which is
an acoustic panel with lighting
underneath.
And it absorbs the sound from
the bottom and from the top.
So my toilets in the
[inaudible] are in red.
OK.
This is just a toilet.
In China-- again I
won a competition,
because everything
is by competition.
It's a very
interesting site, one
I worked by driving
from Nanjing--
and it's a place where
they discovered the bones
of the first Homo erectus.
The man of Nanjing.
And into the cave of one--
one of the cave
into the mountains.
So I went to the site.
I visited the cave.
And it's very
moving when you are
walking into the
underground in a cave
in the grotto, where they found
the bones of the Homo erectus.
Because you think
that you are walking
on the same paths
than Homo erectus.
And so the site was
so big that they
said that we can install the
building were we want it.
So I decided to use the
mountain as bringing my museum,
because this is for the man of
Nanjing who was living there.
So I wanted to bring back
the museum from the mountain.
By playing with the lines
of the site of the mountain,
of lifting them, leaving
them down, going to a model
in papers for the museum,
which is like that.
And this is
reconstructing, rebuilding,
in a way, the lines-- the
curved line of the site,
but in another way.
And have the possibility to go
up as a landscape onto the roof
and inserting the museum
into the landscape.
Rebuilding the lines with
stones on the facade.
Recreating the lines on the
landscape in the garden.
Having in the middle--
somewhere in the space.
Not in the middle.
In the entrance,
the foyer, which
is an atrium-- with an atrium.
Because I wanted,
again, to make people
traveling into the museum.
But it's 20,000 square
meters of museum,
with a program which
was very light.
So I didn't know precisely
what they wanted to have,
but I know that they
will have exhibition
on both sides of the atrium.
And I know that it will be-- it
will have been a lot of people.
Not only thousands of people
but maybe millions of people.
So I wanted to play with
the possibility for people
to travel.
So I decided to create an
atrium which is an irregular
shape or form and to make it
sliding from floor to floor,
having escalators in between
and not at the same place,
to make people
climbing to a floor,
turning around the atrium
to take the second one
and turning and
turning, to discover
what is exhibited on
both sides and to choose
where to go to visit.
Climbing the space like that.
And to the top.
In Paris, we had before
a very huge warehouse
of 600 meters long in
the north of Paris--
inside Paris in the north.
It has been built in the '60s.
The city of Paris bought it in
2009 and it's-- no, not 2009,
at the beginning of 2000--
and decided to transform it
as a kind of a new area,
new quarter of Paris.
So they did a competition, and
[? omar ?] won the competition
and after that chose architects
to build above the building.
Because they discovered where
they studied the buildings,
that the structure
was strong enough
that they can build
six floors above.
So they chose architects
for building housing
above the building.
They cut the building to
let the tramway passing--
a new tramway passing through.
Continuing by housing,
two buildings of offices,
my building for incubator--
startup incubators--
and cutting the building there,
organizing the competition
that Kengo Kuma won for
sport facilities and schools.
So this is a huge
building of 600 meters
long with multi-story
facilities and commercial center
into the old
structure, two floors
of car park underneath
that they build.
And my building is an
incubator for start ups,
so I decided not to have a
normal facade for offices, just
to make bubbles.
And on the south
facade, they are white.
On the north facade,
they are black.
And in between, my east
facades are black and white.
So, as soon as I did
that for the facade,
I decided that the building
will be only black and white,
except some bubbles in red.
Why not?
So, that means that when you
enter, this is the entrance.
Black and white.
Above, there is a flying
bubble for meeting rooms.
And the back, there is the
same, another meeting room--
bubble red, black, and white.
You can enter into the bubble
like that, with a passrail,
and you enter into
the bubble, where
you can sit along this table,
which is not a normal shape.
But you can seat by 2, by
3, by 4, by 10 at the end,
if you want.
But you are always as you want.
We designed the carpet also
with bubbles [inaudible]..
And the lift floor, so
when you arrive at the--
when you take a lift,
you have black and white.
And you push the button.
And there is one black or
one white which is coming.
We never know.
At the first floor you have
these big meeting rooms
and conference rooms, red again.
At some floors--
on many floors--
you have this convivial
space, as they call it--
[? colinear ?] space, where we
designed the furniture to have
places where people can rent--
sit around the floor
to sit and to work,
like a coworking and
informal spaces for working.
And on the top, when
you have the bubbles.
This is fantastic,
because the view
is over Paris is fantastic.
At this moment we are
starting the construction
of a tower in Barcelona
that we won in 2015.
So we are at the end of
Diagonal, close to the sea.
And we are precisely there.
Here, this is a formal--
the tower for Telefonica,
for the telephone company.
And this was a
tower until there.
It was a concrete
block, not finished
for 10 years, 12 years.
And an American-- and an
international fund bought it
and did a competition to
transform it into a high-class
level, high-level class--
I don't know, I
always say that--
for residential.
And we have to destroy a
part which is on the back,
rebuild more floors above--
so reinforce the structure
to build floors above--
create balconies in
cantilever on both sides.
So this is a huge
construction at the beginning
to create that tower.
With a floor which is 10
meters high for the lobby
and the restaurant,
and using again
this curved facade on the
back of the columns which
are existing.
And by chance, the
company who was
doing the curved facade for
L'Opera is based in Barcelona.
So we worked with them,
we discussed with them.
And I asked them to
which height we can go.
And they said nine meters.
I said, OK, we will do
nine meters this time.
So each piece of glass
will be nine meters
with a specific
curve, et cetera.
Playing with glass is nice.
On the back this is more scene.
And on the top, there
is a swimming pool
that you can swim with looking
at the sea at 100 meters high.
And some red balconies.
No black.
Red balconies.
I did sometimes
a little project.
So, I have been asked by an art
collector who is owning this--
oh, how can I go back?
It's stupid.
Doesn't work.
Oh, thank you.
OK.
I'm stupid.
Sorry, I have to
keep [inaudible]..
She is living here
in this little castle
above Grenoble in the Alps.
And here there is the Gulf of
Grenoble, and this is a slope.
And she wanted to have an
artist residence at this place
into the trees.
I went there, and I discovered
that the landscape in front
of--
on this side is
absolutely amazing.
This is the Alps chains
in the valley of Grenoble.
But I wanted to protect
her from the place
from the artist in residence,
not to disturb her.
So I decided to do a silentious
black block, all in wood.
So I decided, because we are
in the Alps, to build in wood.
So this is a wood block
structure and outside
and covered with black
beeches, to protect it.
And this black block, which
is regular on the top,
is twisted when it goes down, to
have possibilities for the sun
to come from
different directions,
without overlooking
to the castle above.
So we have a kind
of a twisted block.
Like that.
With the workshop
for the artists,
which is anchored
into the fortification
to protect the wall which is
supporting the garden above.
And a belvedere above, which
is overlooking the landscape.
So this is a black house.
And I did a white house.
So this one-- the
first one was in wood.
This was all in glass.
It's in Brittany, for a man
who was an English man--
and a couple-- who had
an illness in his eyes
and wanted to have
something absolutely bright
with a lot of maximum of
light inside the house.
Because he's an industrial,
working with glass and steel,
he wanted to build
that in glass.
So we did a total glass house.
Everything is in glass.
It's parallelpiped
inclined, with white glass--
with double glass together--
with a form inside.
It's not transparent.
It's translucent.
And the black volumes are the
kitchen and the bathrooms.
Everything inside is in
glass, even the staircase.
And we have so little windows,
transparent sometimes.
But everything is inclined
a little bit particular.
And this one, I
didn't design it.
This is not my design.
I have been called by the
owner of this house when they
returned from this house--
a brother and a sister--
that [inaudible]
house has been built
between the mid
'60s to the mid '70s
by two men, the
architect and the owner.
And they built that by
themselves, by hand.
This is a steel
structure, curved,
whereas it projected on its
concrete, polished by hand.
And the back, they did--
they projected insulation
and plaster, polished again.
So it took a long time.
And this is, at the end, 600
square meters of bubbles.
And they wanted to renovate it.
So I renovated and waterproofing
the outside and renovated
everything inside by colors.
So this is-- it's
amazing, this house.
I enjoyed to do that.
It was really funny for me.
And living there,
sleeping in the bed--
a round bed in the round
bubble-- is fantastic,
believe me.
So, the first part that we
renovated was a living room.
So we did right at the beginning
and renovated the cushions
only.
So starting by-- because
it was-- the cushions
were like that.
So we rebuilt them.
And I started by
playing with the colors.
Because it was the '60s and
'70s, and I was thinking about
pop art.
So it was multi-colorful.
We started with the colorful.
And after that, we did--
this is one of the bathroom.
Can you imagine?
I took a bath in that bathroom.
This is fantastic.
[laughter]
Look at that.
And we did pink,
black, more pink.
Sometimes mandarin, sometimes
orange, depending on the room.
Sometimes more, again, pink.
Look at that.
I dream of having drawn that.
And these are
designs that, I was--
when I discovered
that, I thought,
my god this is so
amazing to do that.
The corridor, between
outside and inside.
And at the end, the last room
that we renovated, we decided--
because we, after-- we
did that in five years.
We campaign every year of
renovating part of the house,
playing with colors, et cetera.
So thematics of the
rooms were in one color.
Then playing in different
layers of these colors.
At the end, so--
and we did colors by colors.
At the end, for the
last room, and when
I speak about the room, this
is a bedroom, a living-- no,
two bedrooms, a living room,
a kitchen and a bathroom.
So they are, kind
of, apartments.
Because the owner had two kids
and every kid had an apartment.
And they're all connected.
This is why, at the end,
it was 600 square meters.
So at the end, I did not
have ideas for a new color.
I said to the owner, maybe we
can use all of them together.
And we played with all the
colors at the same time,
like that, creating the
furniture sometimes.
So this is fun, it was fun.
And I too, I said,
after the first year,
I said to the owner,
you know, I think
that the statement of the
house, and the colors is,
too much is never enough.
This is book by Lapidus
which is titled,
Too Much is Never Enough.
And I like to be-- to think
that too much is never enough.
This is a good statement for
students in architecture.
Too much is never enough.
[applause]
No, no, it is not finished!
[laughter]
So I do design, I do design.
So I won a competition for
the UNESCO headquarters
for renovating the [inaudible].
So this building has been
done in Paris in the '50s
And I won the competition
for [inaudible]..
And as soon as I
won the competition
for the [inaudible],,
the director told me,
but you know, in the
conference room, which
is 700 square meters,
we need furniture.
Can you propose us something?
I said, can I design?
They said yes.
Because I was dreaming of
designing furniture, but OK.
So I first starting
by doing the counter.
And because it was from the
50s, this building, I said, OK,
'50s were the early
time of plastic.
So I will do the
counter in plastic.
So I went to a little
shipyard one hour from Paris,
and we did together the shape.
We shaped the counter, which
is 11 meters long, in plastic.
And the color of this
object, the orange,
is coming from a fresco
on the back, which
is by Picasso, 50
square meters of fresco
by Picasso in this hall.
Because this building,
which had been
done by Marcel Breuer and Pier
Luigi Nervi as the engineer,
was in the '50s And in
the '50s at this time,
they were doing what they
call the synthesis of art.
So when they were building a
building, an official building,
they were also asking to--
they were asking to
the artist of the time
to propose a piece of art.
So they had a collection,
a huge collection,
of the artists of the '50s.
So they have a fresco
by Picasso, which
was orange in this fresco.
And they wanted to have seats.
So I designed, for
my first time, seats,
and I wanted to do it.
So I was thinking that how can I
deal with a collection of seats
in that huge hall.
And I was thinking
back to the sofas
by Pier Paulin, this
French designer who
was in from the '50s and
who died some years ago.
And he did at this time, it's
what he called the snake.
An articulated sofa, that in
the main hall, a big hall,
they were buying
because it was very
easy to make it like a snake.
So I wanted to rebuild a snake.
But I wanted to design seats.
So I started by
doing an armchair
with a seat and a back.
And after that, I
did a confidante--
that means a two-seat with
a back which is twisted,
and you can sit on both side--
and canopy, with a back and
a seat which are connected.
And if you look carefully,
the seats, the side,
are all the same,
so you can mix them
and you can combine
them as you want.
And you can make this snake
thanks to the confidante.
And the leather color has been
chosen thanks to a tapestry
by Le Corbusier
in the same hall.
And they wanted to have a table,
so I did a plastic table, for 3
meters long with 70
centimeters wide,
and little legs
and the structure,
and [? on ?] this
is by the folds.
And they needed to
have a paper basket,
so I folded aluminum,
polished in a certain way,
to confuse the perception of
this folds, and an ashtray.
After that, an art gallery asked
me to do a place for storage
in this gallery.
So I proposed this box, which
is normal by parallelpiped.
But we can open it like that,
by sliding apart or lifting
the walls apart.
And the plaza lamps that I
did for the MACRO in Rome.
And I continue to
work with Luceplan,
and I did this pendant
lamp, which is [inaudible]
now, because this is
using, with a disc
underneath, the
indirect lighting
by using the underneath
surface to be
a reflector of the lighting.
And Alessi came to me once
and asked me for a tray.
And I was thinking, OK, what can
I do for a tray, with a tray.
So I was thinking, a rectangle,
a round, or a square?
I said, OK, rectangle, I can
play with more with that.
So I took--
I designed two rectangle and
shifting one of the other,
with each of them,
and lifting the sides.
And because those two
rectangles have been shifting,
the sides is not regular.
So you can't take my tray
in the middle of the side,
as usual, to bring it.
You have to take it like that.
And if to bring it like
that, it's much more nice.
And so I call it Alice, because
it's Alice in Wonderlands.
What you see is not what--
What you look is
not what you see.
Or what you see is
not what you look.
Because it seems not to be
flat, and it's absolutely flat.
And I did a fruit basket,
to make the fruit outside,
going outside.
And oh, no, my
god, what happens.
I repeat that, no.
And in Gangzhou, they asked for
15 designers to propose a lamp.
So I propose a stone
with a light underneath.
And I did a knife.
I have a friend who is a
designer, a French designer,
with a direct-- artistic
director of a knife factory.
And he called me once,
and he said, Odile,
do you want to design a knife?
I said, a knife, why not?
And he said, it's
a folding knife.
I said, oh, I love
folding knives.
Because man usually
loves folding knives.
Because everybody has
a knife in his pocket,
and this is a folding knife.
But more of that,
the folding knife
is a knife for the workers.
And if you are the kind
of company of worker,
has a specific knife.
So I was thinking, OK.
But this is for table, OK.
But I was thinking after that,
how to design a knife when
you're an architect.
You are doing buildings and
you have to do a little object.
So I did a model with
my hand with plaster.
And after that,
I passed my model
through the hands in the
office to check if everybody
was comfortable with that.
We did the model of the blade.
So it was a little
object like that.
And I brought to this
man my model, and said,
this is my knife.
He said, you did a
model for a knife?
I said, yes, because I did not
know how to design a knife,
you know.
So I did a model, and they
build it, and now it's sold.
This is a very expensive knife.
[laughter]
I'm sorry.
Because it's not
a regular shape.
And the gallery where, I talked
at the beginning, the art
gallery close to my
office, when I renovated,
I renovated the gallery in 2007.
And he has a dog.
And he lived with--
he was living with the dog,
because the dog died this year.
But in 2007, he was alive.
And so he wanted to bring
back the dog basket in the art
gallery.
And I said, no, a dog basket
in an art gallery, it's
impossible.
This is ugly.
I will design a
basket for your dog.
So we went to visit the dog.
And we measured the dog when
he was standing up, lying,
or sitting.
And we came to--
we did a molded aluminum
object, with a mattress
inside that we asked
somebody to sew for Victor.
And Victor died this year.
So the house is still
there, but he's not here.
So I suppose I did that,
I did to this gallerist.
So I can do that
from human to micies.
And in 2013 he asked
me for the micies.
And I did that one.
So if you want to-- if you
have micies in your house,
you can have my house for them.
And can I-- do I talk to my
school-- oh no, I'm tired.
So maybe we stop there.
No?
Or you want to talk about--
that we talk about the school?
OK.
[laughter]
OK, I have to drink.
I have a glass.
So this is a school.
So why to do school?
Why to establish a new
school in architecture?
Because, as I said, what I
think about architecture today,
as a culture and a
discipline to help people
and to help the world, we
have to rethink the pedagogy
and the way to teach to you.
So young-- there are some others
than students in the audience,
but to the students.
I talk to the students.
I talk to the student, now.
Because you are not as us.
You are not listening we
were, are we are doing.
You are not memorizing
as we are memorizing.
You are not concentrating
as we are made concentrated.
Because you are the
digital generation.
And because of that,
you are not the same.
You are different.
I don't compare.
I don't say that one is
better than the other one.
You are not the
same, and because
of that we have
to change the way
we teach and you are being
educated in architecture.
And at the same time, we have
to take into consideration
that students today
loves to build,
or love to do, fabricate, do
something with their hands,
or whatever.
So to be able to understand
the way between thinking,
designing, and fabricating.
And this is very
important to understand
this link, because this is
the only way to do something,
and after, and to--
for helping again.
And because, with architecture,
you can become architect or you
can become who you want.
Because doing studies
in architecture
is educating yourself to
understand who you are
and who you want to become.
Because if you
think that, have you
heard about this music
group, music band, The Who?
Yes.
They were all architects.
The Talking Heads, they
were all architects.
They were all meeting in
the school of architecture,
and they were architects.
If you think about, Orhan Pamuk,
he was writer from Istanbul,
he was studying architecture.
If you think about--
there are many, many people.
If you think about
Courreges, the fashion
designer, the French
fash-- he was architects.
So with architecture,
you can do what you want.
So you have to think about that.
Architecture is more important
than being an architect.
And architecture
is really the core
of the way of thinking
and helping the world.
And because of
that, this is why I
think that we have to
change the way of educating.
And I feel a bit of
that in this school.
This is why I like this school,
and this school very cool,
as I said in the beginning.
Because I know
that, for you, it's
normal to have a
place for studying,
a place for working
when you are a student.
In France, it doesn't exist
in any school of architecture.
So in my school, they
have places for working.
Thy have the key of
the school and they can
come, as you are doing there.
But is not-- is rare.
It's not everywhere.
In my school, also, they
have the key of the school
and they come when they want.
They can go to
the workshop down,
they can use the machines,
they can do what they want.
But as soon as they are
responsible, autonomous,
and able to think,
and to create,
do things that they can help.
And they are
responsible, mostly.
At the same time,
I think that today,
because when you do inquiries
about the young generation,
you don't want to be
salaries to some--
in the company.
You want to be by yourself.
So you want to become
entrepreneur, in a way.
So we have to educate you to
help you to become entrepreneur
in the world of tomorrow.
Because we are in
the 21st century.
My generation, the
generation of your teachers,
we were happy and very lucky.
Because we were
living in a world
where the transformation
was going, was undergoing.
And we just wanted
to push, to push
the transformation
of the world, to push
it to go faster and further.
You, at the end of
the 20th century,
everything has been broken.
So the 21st century
is to be invented.
So I'm very jealous
about yourself,
because you have to
invent a century.
And this century
is your century.
Because you will have been
educated for being, and being,
and living, and
working, and doing what
you want in that century.
So I can't believe that, so
lucky the luck that you have,
to have a century to
create, to invent.
So first to think.
So first to dream.
More important duty
of a student today
is to dream, to
dreams the world,
to understand what
is coming, and to be
able to invent the world.
Thank you.
[applause]
Would you mind if we
take some questions?
Yes, yes, no
problem, no problem.
So, Odile, if we could take
some questions, comments.
Yeah, I mean, it's like really
great to hear you speak,
and it's like really
inspirational.
I think that we are in a
different generation now.
And I feel like with
digital technology
right at our fingertips
it means that now,
like, the ability for students
to directly concentrate
on craft and the art of making,
is way more imperative than I
think it was in your
generation, which
was about the avant garde
and questioning everything.
And I think now, this sort
of hardcore resurgence
in design and, like,
the actual object-making
is really important.
It's like powerfully
demonstrated in your work.
I don't have a question,
of course, but--
[laughs]
But I think that the idea of
movement in your architecture
is pretty clearly
defined and represented.
And I was thinking about the
ultimate movement architecture
building, like the Guggenheim,
and how it just perfectly
circulates the people.
But it seemed like,
in your photos,
it's not really about, like,
the circulation of the people,
per se, so much as
like the architecture
itself taking on this movement.
And so like, I look at the main
atrium space of that one museum
with the, sort of,
ellipse white egg-shaped.
And you went to like this very
clear strategy of delineating
the escalators as these
big clunky objects, which
I felt were sort
of like climbing up
this sort of like
curvaceous object.
And I felt like that sort
of dialectic relationship
of things acting
upon other things
was clear in your architecture.
Yeah, thank--
Your question is?
I don't have a question.
I just figured
I'd say something.
OK thank you.
Thank you.
[laughs]
Actually, yeah, I
have a question.
The, sort of, school
you're creating right now
is really something brand
new, especially seen
from the French perspective.
Could you talk a bit
more about the school
you're founding right now?
About what?
About, everything about it.
So just--
Everything.
[laughter]
Describe it.
You have to come.
Why is it new,
especially in France?
What is the new thing?
International.
Speaking and teaching in
English and French, mixed.
So everybody has to teach
and to speak both languages.
And that is not only.
It is also about
the fact that we--
there are no permanent teachers.
Teachers are coming and
people, because it's--
I'm not there every
day, because I can't.
And nobody is there, so
students open the door when
the teachers are coming.
If I can control the system.
And they go to the airport or
the station, train station,
to welcome them.
They bring them at school.
Because they know that they are
coming because we tell them.
And they receive them.
They make them
visiting the school,
and after that they
start to teach for.
And this is not--
because people are coming from
abroad or for somewhere else,
another place, so we
don't have just one course
for one hour or two hours.
We have just long system
of long period of teaching.
So we have only what I call
seminars, and not courses.
Because I said,
at the beginning,
that you are not memorizing
as we were memorizing.
So if we have a course
on whatever subject
one day for two hours, and
so it continues week after.
In the meantime, you have
forgotten everything.
So it's losing time.
So I prefer to give-- to
have three days of teaching
on the same thematic, on the
same history of architecture,
construction or whatever.
And at the end, the students
are memorizing something.
And it acts-- it ask,
also, to the teachers
to change the way of
teaching, because they
can't do just a
lecture for three days,
for doing three days.
So they have to invent new ways
of approaching, discussing,
debating, making the
students understanding
what they are talking about.
And they do it.
And so, and after that we have
a workshop which are three--
one week or 10 days, and a
long studio for the semester.
But it's really another way of
interacting with the students,
that maybe you have
it here, I don't know.
But we don't have it
anywhere in Europe.
Because I'm teaching-- I was
teaching in many, many places,
and I never see that already.
So we are doing that.
Because we depend
on-- we will look
at what are our students today.
And half of our students
are from abroad,
half are from France.
And what else?
[laughs]
Hi, so earlier on
in the talk, you
distinguished architecture
thinking from design thinking,
in general.
I'm wondering, what
do you feel that--
do you feel that there's a
difference in the process,
when they're--
between architecture
thinking and design thinking.
Because there is a process
of design in architecture,
but not only.
This is why I said
that we have to invoke,
because we can work more
than-- more disciplines
that only design, that
only further design.
Because when-- and this
is why, in my studio,
I want that my students
are doing research,
and they are able to think.
They are able to
construct, to build
a way of thinking, a way of
researching for thinking.
Taking a position, being
engaged in a subject,
because if you are not
engaged, and if you
don't take a position,
you will never take risk.
And life is risky.
You have to risk everything.
Every day of your
life is risking.
And doing architecture
is taking a risk,
because you have to
overpass the regulation.
You have to try to
do something more.
You have to try to give
more to your client.
What your client is
asking you something,
where you have to take
the risk to give him more.
And this is taking risk,
that always in the taking
care of the budget, talking
the normal things, budget,
et cetera, but,
OK, and regulation.
But sometimes, you
have to take the risk
to go over, to go further.
Otherwise, you only stay on
your place and you don't leave.
That's why I think
that architecture
is more powerful than design--
and the design.
At Confluence is there
a particular pedagogy,
or previous experimental
architecture school,
or pedagogical school of thought
that you are inspired by there?
I was looking at--
because it took for me two years
to think about how to do it,
and I was looking at different
experiences in the world.
And but not only from
students, even from my school
or little schools, and I
was looking at Montessori,
I was looking at
Steiner, I was looking
at some experiences in Finland
that do some-- as they do,
they did, they are doing now.
I was looking about the
one, in close to Chicago,
it's a school of art.
Cranbrook?
Cranbrook, exactly.
Because I went to Taiwan.
And in Taiwan, there
were some teachers
from Cranbrook, who came
25 years ago in Taiwan
and, because they were
Taiwanese and some
are American and English, and
they went and they established
a school of design,
because it was
forbidden for them to establish
a school of architecture.
And they were doing something
absolutely as I like.
Something, mixing
everything, and students
are free to choose
what they want.
It's a bit-- it's bigger
than what we are today.
So maybe at the end my
students will be free, too.
But as for the
moment, is they can't.
And it was for me an example.
And they are other
experiences, because I
heard that there are other
people who are trying to--
I don't remember the
name now, but excuse me.
After one day, I'm a bit tired.
But I was looking at many,
many different experiences
in the world to
understand what I can do.
Yeah.
Maybe one more, maybe
the last question.
Thanks for sharing.
My question is, how
much the French culture
influence your architecture?
Because I think you design
a lot of architecture
around the world, like
you mentioned about China.
So I just wonder about your
culture root of France.
So I'm from France,
because I am French.
So I think that I have
a kind of French roots.
And but every time I go
somewhere, I build for a place.
So whatever the place is--
and if it's in China, if it's
in Italy, if it's in Spain,
if it's maybe in the States--
I look at the place, and
I design for the place.
So that mean-- because it's
not importing an object.
It's not having an
object which can travel
and being established
whatever you want.
No, it's for a place.
And I don't know.
My roots are French, and I have
some specificity, certainly,
which are French.
But I don't know which one.
And I'm not with this
neoclassical vision
of French architecture, always
the entrance in the middle
with symmetrical
buildings, for example.
I don't like that.
So I'm always on
the beside of that.
I always try to do
something in diagonal,
because I like diagonal.
I like to go on the other side
and to turn around the object.
And then because I was
looking a lot about how,
in East of the world, you
are entering into a building
with sliding like that, not
entering into by opening
the door inside.
I love when the
space is giving you
the possibility to move, and
to walk, and to be in movement.
And because I'm curious
about everything,
I'm inspired by everything,
not only architecture.
Architecture is not
my only nourishment.
I look at planes, cars,
objects in the industry,
what happens in
the shops, or what
happens in the world, what is
happening in technology, today.
I'm curious about everything.
And I think that is
a certain quality
refers to that in architecture,
being able to dream
and being able to be
curious all his or her life.
Odile, thank you so
much for being here.
Thank you.
[applause]
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I can't believe this
is the first time.
