Avec EXYZT
Asked to represent France at the 10th Venice Biennale of architecture in 2006, Patrick Bouchain invited EXYZT collective to design together a project for the French Pavilion. In response to the Biennale’s theme “Métacité” (a planetary town without localisation), in an overly publicised context where the representation of architecture often prevails over architecture itself, the architects proposed Métavilla (“Mets ta vie là” – put your life here). They literally decided to live in the pavilion for the duration of the event: half of the building is taken up by a scaffolding structure that houses a hotel that can accommodate around forty people but also a kitchen, a reading room, a work space and, on the ceiling, a sauna, a pool and a garden designed by Liliana Motta, with a beautiful view over the lagoon. The entry to the pavilion was designed by Daniel Buren, and offered the possibility of “seeing differently” from inside towards the outside, by inverting the perception of the pavilion’s architecture and its situation. Thus the French pavilion was transformed into an uninterrupted place of encounter and exchange where the architecture is “experienced”, where the visitor becomes an actor and active participant, where the place becomes a permanent laboratory for experimentation, pleasure and work. If Métavilla was to contribute to radically changing the way people consider the site and the idea of an architecture exhibition itself, it also marked a turning point in the search for a habitat designed with its use in mind; in Venice Patrick Bouchain initiated the concept of “architectural permanence” as a motor for projects.
