As part of the annual Festival des Architectures Vives (FAV) held in Montpellier, France, June 10-14, the Syracuse University School of Architecture was invited to participate in the exhibition. This is a special year celebrating the event’s 10th anniversary; The theme this year is simply titled “La Dixième (The Tenth).” Each year, one university is invited to participate in FAV.
During the fall 2014 semester, studio teams throughout Syracuse Architecture created their design proposals for consideration. The challenge was to produce a schematic design for the Courtyard Audessan installation that would engage the festival theme. Attention was to be given to technical feasibility, fabrication ease, and construction budget, not to exceed $5,000.)
A jury that include Dean Michael Speaks and the competition’s executive team selected three students from Assistant Professor Maya Alam’s second-year studio: Waralee Kaewkoon, Emily Greer, and Thomas Byung H. Kim. In early June, the group will travel to Montpellier to install their team project, “Trans(inter)ference” in the Hotel Audessan courtyard. The project will be part of the Festival that takes place from June 10-14.
The Syracuse University School of Architecture entry in the Festival is sponsored
by Richard Granoff ’84, President and Founder of Granoff Architects based in Greenwich,
Connecticut, and Syracuse Architecture Advisory Board member.
Trans(inter)ference
The winning team’s project advanced an adaptable installation at the Hotel Audessan that richly engaged the courtyard site while merging a contemporary preoccupation with formal figuration with an ephemeral material proposition (VHS magnetic tape). The project, described as “a convergence of drawings and sculpture in space” is a “labyrinth of diverse enclosures” - the effect of which “flickers between the new and the old.”
FAV
Established in 2006 by the Champ Libre association, The Festival des Architectres Vives aims to raise awareness and foster the debate on the relationship between historic urban environments and contemporary architecture. Since its inception, the courtyards, porticoes and streets of the historical center of Montpellier, have been the site of specific installations conceived by teams of young architects and designers. The Festival invites teams of architects, landscape architect, and urban planners from all around the world to participate.
While FAV is organized by architecture and urban planning professionals, its intent is to reach a wide audience, from layman to more informed. Each year, the heart of historic of Montpellier features prototypes, animations, themed tours or architectural experiments at different scales. FAV aims to raise public awareness in the field of architecture and build understanding of the built environment by promoting the encounter between those who make the city and those who live there.
