People in Motion

For ages, people have been in motion: Survival. Economical transactions. Religious expansions. Wars. Colorizations. Rural exodus. Slavery. Gold Rush. Great explorations. Grand tour. Tourism. Circulation of knowledge. Climatic disruptions. No matter the reason, people moved and shaped architectures and territories in response to their mobility. The past century considerably accelerated this phenomenon with the increase of speed and the breakthrough of connectivity.

Today, more than before, the world is composed and defined by the huge and heterogeneous displacement of people: Tribes, Migrants. Fugitives. Refugees. Explorers. Workers. Global Companies. Mass Tourism. Artists. Athletes. Data. Trade. Virtual Reality. If the reasons and the forms of movements on the globe are multiple, they all question and alter the notions of identity, temporality, frontiers and barriers. Hence, students will be encouraged to explore what motion challenges.

Going on the ground, on water, in the air or even airspace and through the cloud! The aim is to analyze one of these evolutions in relation with the broader notion of mobility. How will humans are moving and how they will move in the near future? How will these new forms of motions affect cities, infrastructures, buildings and bodies? Students will translate this investigation in architectural terms and develop a bold project capable of questioning how tomorrow’s world could be built.

The design process will also investigate precedents of avant-garde architecture and heavily focus on new ways of shaping architecture and bodies in space through movement. The broad range for interpreting what motion means will provide the opportunity to discover and create new forms of spaces and behaviors.

Each student will be invited to investigate a specific people in motion through three main questions: WHY do they move? WHERE do they go? HOW do they travel?
The class is an architectural studio and as such a majority of the time will be dedicated to personal research and spatial experimentation. Instructional process will include group discussions and in-class critique of student's projects.

The first month will be dedicated to researches and inquiries on specific people in motion (Why, Where and How). A precise aspect of the displacement will be explored in order to analyze its political, territorial and architectural implications.

The second month, students will study the territory on which people are moving and build maps of displacements describing the new geography of the world. All data registering people in motion will be considered.

This course has an irregular meeting schedule.

Odile Decq will be in residence on August 28 and 29, October 6, 7, 26 and 27, November 20 and 21, and December 6, 7, or 8.

Nicolas Hannequin will be in residence on September 14 and 15, October 19 and 20, and November 9 and 10.

The instructors will also be available on the morning of studio days to account for “off-week” missed time.