Category Archives: ACTUALITÉS

First Richard Morris Hunt Scholar : five weeks in the USA historic industrial sites

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by Isabelle Michard

RMH Prize - Isabelle Michard - 2012

It is fascinating and encouraging to see how a series of marvellous coincidences can flow from a single act. I have just had this experience!

On December 4, 2011, I applied for the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. As the Architecte des Batimentsde France in Moselle, I work on behalf of the the Ministry of Culture to protect the built heritage in my region. I monitor the quality and integrity of protected zones around designated historic monuments. I met the RMHF Juryand presented my research topic: the industrial heritage of Moselle, which is known for its industry, its steel factories, and especially its coal mines. Today this area is deteriorating, its landscape is polluted and abandoned, and its future is in question, to say the least. I did not receive the Fellowship, but the jury, struck by the timeliness of my topic, decided to create the first RMH Scholar Residency. I became the first Hunt Scholar and was invited to spend five weeks researching in the United States.
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Conclusions of seminary

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by Jean-Christophe Simon (RMHF1993), Inspecteur Général des Patrimoines, Collège des Monuments Historiques and Ruth Todd FAIA (RMHF1994)

Page and Turnbull, Inc San Francisco (CA), Principal

RMH Fellows in Toulouse – Carcassonne – Albi

Those three days spent together in Toulouse gave us the opportunity to meet, exchange ideas with all the actors involved in preservation and heritage enhancement

  • Landowners and policy-makers
  • Project managers and general contractors
  • Scientific and technical control experts
  • Public institutions in charge of opening to the public policy
  • And let us not forget the artisans of another heritage: gastronomy. We have in mind the foie gras, and the elaborated wines served so generously by the Chateau de Serres.
    The continuity, the vitality of our common heritage, depends on the good will and the cross hands investment of all those actors with whom we cross ideas along these days of studies.
    Albi is the perfect synthesis of our work covering the three topics studied during our workshops:
  • The monument in its environment
  • The accessible monuments
  • The creation within monuments

From your contributions and reflexions, I shall retain that to be alive heritage has to be totally part of the city; that not only we work first for the inhabitants but also for the visitors and monument amateurs. I am deeply convinced that heritage is the common property of the nation and of humankind.

To have a real meaning it has to be accessible to all, it has to be part of everyone’s life.

We, French and American architects, share totally these opinions.

Our concerns bring us together. They are fully personified in the values of the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship.

By those exchanges, by those “Regards Croisés”, clearly we understand how similar our worries are and how much we can bring to each other.

These crossed experiences, this network of the Fellows finds here its justification.

I, greatly and sincerely thank you for the value of your contribution and for the strength of your commitment.

Ruth Todd, FAIA adds:

Since 1994, not much have change in America regarding our preservation process. At reverse, I feel that in France, much has changed. Boundaries have expanded and urbanism is now an important issue in preservation. With the information age, technology makes it easier to communicate and participate.

We, the RMH Fellows, have achieved a critical mass and each year is raising the quality of the fellowship. We owe this to the commitment of our “chaperones”.

Toulouse, Albi, Carcasonne – Seminar RMHF 2012

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Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship RMH Fellows meet in Toulouse – Carcassonne – Albi. May 25th. – May 29th. 2012 

Under the guidance of Vanessa Fernandez (RMHF 2010) and Jean-Christophe Simon (RMHF 1993)

After Paris, Lyon, Washington DC, Angers, Chicago, the RMHF wished to be associated with the city of Toulouse, remarquable example of «Tradition» and «Architectural Innovation» in an historical context.

Acting as a laboratory of ideas, enriched by the comparison and contrast of experiences and perspectives of each Fellow, this seminar will put into perspective the latest developments in theory and practice related to heritage conservation. It will also reinforcethe personal and professional bonds of the Fellows, ensuring the strength and sustainability of the RMHF.

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Wang Shu and the “Leçon inaugurale” of Ecole de Chaillot, in Paris

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For the first time at the Ecole de Chaillot, a foreign architect was invited to the prestigious « Leçon inaugurale ».

WANG SHU,

Global Award for sustainable Architecture in 2007,

Grande médaille d’or de l’Académie d’Architecture de Paris, in 2011

In February 2012, Wang Shu will be the winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize. France had already fully recognized his extraordinary merit.

He graduated with a degree in architecture from South-East University of Nankin and earned his PHD in 2000 at Tongji University of Shanghai.

In 1998, with his wife, Lu Wenyu, he established his agency Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou. Currently he holds the position of Director of Architecture Department at the University of Hangzhou.

Wang Shu demonstrates a sensitive and poetic approach with traditional savoir-faire, using a very contemporary architectural vocabulary.

Some of his works :

  • Ningbo contemporary Art Museum (2006)
  • In the city of Hangzhou, Zhongshan street renovation
  • The Garden of Tiles at the 10th Venice Biennal (2006)
  • The Tengtou-Ningbo pavilion at the Shanghai Universal Exhibition (2010).

WANG-SHU joins the tradition of the « Leçon inaugurale » of Chaillot, a link between creation, history and patrimony. He re-discovers tradition, comprehends it and transcends it.
It is clear that the French architectural elite are taking notice of this talented architect.

Jaén, a cathedral, a square, a 21st century work of art

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44-2591625

In the historic center of Jaen, the architect Salvador Perez Arroyo, following the pure Castillan tradition of a plaza mayor submitted an innovative design for a square that sublimates the magnificent Renaissance facade of the Santa Maria cathedral, built on the site of a former mosque.

A brilliant example of 21st century Andalousian town planning: a long series of debates took place before the adoption of this plan for the new agora which might now be considered a model for all city squares.

The luminous cathedral facade soars upward ethereally from an empty space occupied by only seven fountains, illuminated at night, and punctuated by copper paving stones set out in the rhythm of the pillars in the nave of the church. Also in copper are the rays of an encrusted sun dial. The square has been paved in black Portuguese granite.

The abundant play of water effectively counterbalances the heat prevalent during certain months, thereby making the square a convivial, pleasant venue for the traditional paseo.