Compulsion; Sketches and watercolors of an architect; Fog; Bauges massif. The designed and landscaped selection for December.
Compulsion by Adam Roberts (screenplay) and François Schuiten (drawing)
« Everywhere one could see these new structures, small and large, wide and tall; monoliths, domes and spheres built by Obligation, standing proudly above the pastures like the letters of an unpublished, colossal and impenetrable text ».
Some time ago, insidiously, human behavior changed. Men and women, who have nothing to do with each other, have begun to move everyday objects to specific locations, driven by a feeling of obligation against which it seems impossible to fight. From a few dozen individuals at first, their number has grown to thousands across the world, activating to respond to this strange injunction, the cause of which is to date completely unknown.
While some objects seem perfectly innocuous, such as an old model telephone or the dented cap of a beer bottle, others are much more complex and confusing: the turbine of an experimental jet engine or the processor of a supercomputer. Those who feel obliged to carry all these items do not simply pile them up like trash once they arrive at their destination. The Obliges are in fact capable of connecting these elements with no obvious connection between them, like pieces of a three-dimensional puzzle. The structures they design also seem to have mechanical and technological potential intended to serve a purpose. But… for what purpose?
A futuristic short story written by British writer Adam Roberts and transcended by the grandiose architectural illustrations of Belgian François Schuiten, “Compulsion” offers a panel of heterogeneous characters, stuck in inextricable situations, and whose reactions create a skillfully constructed tension.
About the authors
Adam Roberts has been publishing short stories and novels for 25 years in the UK, primarily in the areas of science fiction and fantasy. This prolific academic teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, one of the University of London’s seven colleges.
Francois Schuiten was born on April 26, 1956 in Brussels. He published his first story in the Belgian edition of Pilote when he was only 16 years old. He then joined the comics workshop at the Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels, led by Claude Renard. From 1977, with his brother Luc, he imagined the first stories of Hollow lands. At the same time, he signed At the medians of Cymbiola et The Railwith Claude Renard. In 1983, he began, with his childhood friend Benoît Peeters, The Dark Citiesa series that has won many awards. In 2002, he received the Grand Prix d’Angoulême for all of his work. He released his first solo album, La Douce, in 2012.
Publisher: Dargaud; Compulsion by Adam Roberts (screenplay) and François Schuiten (drawing); 128 pages; Size: 24 x 34 cm; Price: €35
Antoine Daudré-Vignier: Sketches and watercolors of an architect
Antoine Daudré-Vignier, Guillaume Laurant
Antoine Daudré-Vignier, remarkable landscaper, takes us here to his favorite places, first in France, in Picardy, the family cradle, in Oléron, his vacation spot, and again in Paris, Marseille, Chartres, Orléans, Fontevraud… Brazil , where he stayed, is his adopted land to which he likes to return. Europe fascinates him just as much, particularly England, Italy, Portugal and Spain with their powerful and contrasting shadows and lights that he finds in Morocco and Egypt. In these two countries, as in Vietnam, his gaze focuses precisely on ancient and vernacular constructions, which today are so many lessons in architecture and composition that are stimulating and ecological, both locally anchored and universal.
About the authors
Antoine Daudré-Vignier has been drawing since a young age. He graduated as an architect in 1984. The following year, he worked in São Paulo, and in 1988, opened his agency in Paris. In 1991, he settled on the island of Oléron, fascinated by its island and maritime landscapes. His travels around the world are opportunities to capture the soul of places.
Guillaume Laurant is a screenwriter, dialogue writer. He worked, among others, on films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, notably writing the original screenplay for Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain. He is the author of several novels, The Window Door Years and Happy Hand.
Publisher: AAM – Archives D’Architecture Moderne; Antoine Daudré-Vignier: Sketches and watercolors of an architect; 128 pages; Size: 30.5 x 25 cm; Price: €35
Abrume – In the footsteps of the free cabins, by Gauthier Delvert and Raphaël Guillemette
A wild world in the heart of nature
Having left for more than a year and a half in the footsteps of wild cabins, shelters without guards, open to everyone all year round, two young architects, Raphaël Guillemette and Gauthier Delvert, pay homage to this fragile and little-known heritage which forms a world on the edge of civilization, where the features of land registers have been erased by time.
Lost in the forests of Champagne, isolated on the Vercors plateau, clinging to a mountain in the Pyrenees, camouflaged in the valleys of Occitanie, these free cabins, which they renamed to better protect them, punctuate our landscapes. They are all possibilities for rethinking our way of exploring and inhabiting the world, of building and living together.
It overwhelms : hut which is revealed in a thick mist after a day of walking, when the stomach is hollow, the legs are heavy and the clothes are soaked. A fine smoke rises behind an embankment, the smell of wood fire spreads gently in the air, the shelter takes shape little by little.
About the authors
Gauthier Delvertarchitect and former scout from France, has always had a taste for itinerant camping. Passionate about geography and lover of the great outdoors, he went to Southeast Asia for six months. He decides to return to France by land, curious to discover the diversity of the territories crossed during the journey. Since then, he has regularly set out to discover little-known landscapes in France and Europe.
Raphaël Guillemettearchitect, discovered a passion for hiking at a very young age when he ventured for the first time to the Highlands, in Scotland, where he was fascinated by the bothies, old sheepfolds used as refuges by hikers and hikers. . Since then, he has gone every year to France or Europe to explore the wild territories with his tent and his backpack.
Publisher: Ulmer Editions; Abrume – In the footsteps of the free cabins, by Gauthier Delvert and Raphaël Guillemette; 216 pages; 220 photos; Size: 21.5 x 28.5 cm; Price: €35
Bauges massif, a heritage between lake and mountains
Classified as a Regional Natural Park in 1995 and a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2011, the Bauges massif is an exceptional territory recognized for the quality of its landscapes and its geological, natural and cultural heritage. Forestry and pastoral, the massif is also wine-growing, arboricultural, touristy and even industrial.
Located at the crossroads of the Lyon-Turin and Grenoble-Geneva axes but difficult to access, it is a strategic land defended by fortresses such as the castle of Miolans or the fort of Tamié and a haven of peace where the main orders are established religious, like the Tamié Abbey or the Aillon Chartreuse.
Despite this rich history, the heritage of the massif is above all a rural mountain heritage made up of scattered villages, isolated agricultural outbuildings (barns-stables, alpine chalets, wine cellars, etc.) and some towns with more urban architecture like Alby-sur-Chéran or Montmélian. From the 19th century, the development of roads and bridges crossing the gorges which cut into the territory, such as that of the Abîme, favored the development of tourism both on the banks of Lake Annecy and in Revard where the lake was born. one of the first winter sports resorts in France.
For several years of ground surveying and unprecedented photographic coverage, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and its Inventory and Cultural Heritage department collaborated with the Massif des Bauges Regional Natural Park and provided the methodological framework for a inventory. This richly illustrated work traces the history then details the very diverse heritage of a land of contrasts.
Textensions : Jerome Daviet, Caroline Guibaud, Thierry Monnet
Photographs: Eric Dessert, Thierry Leroy, Michel Pérès, Franck Trabouillet, Emmanuel Breteau
Publisher: Lieux Dits; Massif des Bauges, a heritage between lake and mountains; 192 pages; photos; Size: 24.7 x 30.1 cm; Price: €24.50
