Rationality and Consistency

written by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi
architects Gilles Delalex and Yves Moreau

 

In recent years, the architectural production in France has been mostly focused on building skins. Higher and higher demands in terms of overall thermal performance have had the effect of increasing the distance between the design of structural components, that of the interior environments and the exterior appearance of a building – a technical and conceptual gap that today appears very hard to overcome. What has arguably remained for architects to design, in terms of pure expression of a building’s image, is the thin surface of coating in contact with air, the façade becoming the favourite place for architects’ aesthetics signature in the form of patterns, colours, composition and materials.