SPOLIA

Location : Palais de la comtesse de Caen, Institut de France, Paris

Client : Académie des Beaux-Arts, Prix Charles Abella

Status : Exhibition, Concours d’architecture de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2023

Photograph : Salem Mostafaoui

Currator : Emmanuelle Chiappone Piriou + MBL Architectes

Design & Built : Studio ACTE

Borrowing its title from the Roman tradition of reusing components, the Spolia project explores aesthetics and constructive potentials of reuse. In response to the climate emergency and the scarcity of materials, the circular approach identifies resources among the mass of standardized waste generated by the construction industry. The Parisian metropolis becomes the fertile ground for this experimentation, which re-anchors architecture in the territory: geosourced materials from the urban mines of Greater Paris constitute the primary elements of a circular design for resilient architecture. Resulting from deconstructions, the elements used are fragments of both local and global histories, which they index within the new creations. The project proceeds by selection and implementation of materials extracted from available stocks, at the scale of the model and the detail of the assembly, for a housing facade project. Spolia contributes to the local reinvention of know-how and articulates constructive languages and aesthetic vocabularies that are both realistic and imaginative.

Each Spolia presents a reinvented vision of a possible urban ecology, assembling ordinary construction elements from deconstructions. The exhibition explores the dialogue between craftsmanship, available materials, and standardization, encouraging a critical examination of architectural forms as figures of resilience.