A leitmotiv in Patrick BOUCHAIN: transmitting and sharing experience, know-how and knowledge. This builder-director is going today to the farthest reches of his logic and is turning over his work to those in his agency, Construire.

The occasion to review his career and his commitments, in politics and for social housing with him. But also a decade of his créations for cultural venues.

Interview by Francesco DELLA CASA, analysis by Anna HOHLER

Photos by Cyrille WEINER

Nr. 387 - "FOCUS" section

Three words to define Johan OSCARSON and Jonas ELDING, this Swedish duo influenced by Japan architecture. With its delicate and pragmatic approach, the ELDING OSCARSON firm favours the materiality of the architecture over high-tech. Limpid.

Portrait by Alexandre LABASSE

Photos by AKE E:SON LINDMAN

Nr. 387 - "ÉMERGENCE" section

In Old English, "GODSPEED" means "good luck". The Swede, Finn AHLGREN, born in 1978, and the Dutchman, Joy VAN ERVEN, born in 1980, decided that the word would serve as an ideal name for their company. Confronting their Northern European sensibilities with the hurly-burly of Tel Aviv, Israel, they have been practising "speed design" for a number of years now. A unique production technique which is both ethical and capable of creating beautiful pieces. Or, how to make a piece of furniture in 60 minutes.

A portrait by Rafaël MAGROU

Nr. 387 - "DESIGN" section

With a spiral notebook and coloured pencils as his only tools, the Colombian architect Simon VÉLEZ designs his complex guadua bamboo structures. A review of three creations that are exemplary in their social and environmental impact.

Text by Pierre FREY

Photos by Pedro FRANCO and Deidi VON SCHAEWEN

Nr. 387 - "TECHNIQUE" section

'A'A' focuses on three recent projects with exceptional technical characteristics and successful insertion into their social, urban or landscape context.

Zoom on the rehabilitation of the Bois-le-Prêtre tower in Paris by the trio Frédéric DRUOT and LACATON & VASSAL, who just received the Équerre d’argent prize, the SNOHETTA reindeer observation post in the Dovrefjell mountains in Norway and the Hiroshi Senju Museum in Karuizawa, Japan, designed by Ryue NISHIZAWA.

Texts by Francesco DELLA CASA, Marie-Douce ALBERT and Fanny LÉGLISE

Photos by Adrien BUCHET, Ketil JACOBSEN and Iwan BAAN

Nr. 387 - "PROJETS" section

The canton-city of GENEVA is developing into a denser and more open "Lake Geneva metropolis". It is having a hard time however renewing its urban planning model, restricted by its territorial limits and its overlapping with the fringes of France or the canton of Vaud. Densification, cooperation: the authorities are multiplying solutions to get out of this gridlock. What remains is the housing problem.

Texts by Cédric VAN DER POEL, Frédéric FRANK and Bruno MARCHAND

Photos by Adrien BUCHET

Nr. 387 - "URBANISME" section

Whether outdoor monumental structures, digital drawings or smaller indoor structures, Vincent MAUGER's work takes many different forms, but the artist is not as changeable as it may seem. His "landscapes", made of figures repeated almost to infinity, do not seem to be confined to a single scale. Whether immense or reduced to digital drawings, they go beyond material contingencies, offering a vast world inspired by medical and scientific imagery. Already a complex world for an artist who has not yet turned forty.

A portrait by Régis DURAND

Nr. 387 - "ART" section

Eight years after launching an urban redevelopment project on a 150 - hectare former industrial site, the first phase of LYON CONFLUENCE development area is being unveiled on the Saône side. Water has pride of place in this lively area.

A report by Adrien BUCHET (text and photos)

Nr. 387 - "RETOUR DE" section

This December, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded its annual President’s medals in London. The competition attracted students from across the globe, going to Kibwe TAVARES from the University of London for his "Robots of Brixton" project. L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui makes special mention of two other projects, namely Gepetto by Oliver BOOTH, for its poetry, and Hong Kong New Squatter by Chi Yin Stephen CHAN, for its social implications.

Nr. 387 - "ÉCOLE" section