General view of the building
Construction of the concert hall
Close-up of a giant formwork
Architects decided to keep the old corridor
Several new entrances allow to access all the parts of the building more rapidly
Some scaffolders in front of an unfinished window
Nobody could work as it was snowing
I was all by myself as it was snowing
Some small bridge under the auditorium’s ceiling
Some workers welding or cutting metal
In 2013 I have been called by the architecture agency AS Architecture Studio to cover one of its construction sites, namely the Maison de Radio France in Paris. Strong symbol situated a couple of hundred meters from the Eiffel Tower, this building isn’t well known either by the French nor the tourists. The result of this work has been exposed during the 55th Venice Biennale along with Valérie Jouve and Zhenfei Wang.
This work is split into two parts that cohabit, even if they focus on two very different aspects : the architectural one (± 80 photographs) and the physical one (± 50 photographs).
First of all, this project seeks to change the view one can have of a construction site, rough and violent theatre of a show of strength, showing it completely devoid of its working buzz. The absence of bodies leaves bare the space that is created and allows to concentrate on the architectural details. Snow, a symbol of cleanliness and softness, stands in opposition to formwork and lifting cranes. These aspects offer a totally different image from the collective imagination of a building site.
Then a construction work is a permanent mutating field, where each element is being processed individually and not in its whole ensemble. One can often find oneself in outsets of spaces, places that are neither quite defined nor quite nonexistent. This offers plays of light, occasions to cheat the eye of the viewer, sometimes disorientating him and bringing him to a questioning.
Year 2013
Client Architecture Studio
Status Completed works
Type Corporate Headquarters / Offices/studios / Concert Halls / Photography
