A Right to Difference

“In France no less than in Britain, the late 1960s saw a rebellion against the relentless anonymity of modernist planning. In search for alternatives, the architect Jean Renaudie showed an originality and a daring unrivalled up to this day. Conceived along structuralist principles, informed by research in molecular biology, his urban projects overturned the logic of the vast housing estates that were being steamrolled across France by the State. In the place of uniform tower blocks, he designed social housing where every dwelling was unique. Diversity – the spanner in the works of mass production – was for him a moral obligation. No concession was named in the name of type, be it human or architectural.” (I. Scalbert)

Irénée Scalbert is an architectural critic and historian based in London. He is the author of A Right to Difference: The Architecture of Jean Renaudie (2004), Never Modern (2013) and A Real Living Contact with the Things Themselves (2018). He taught at the AA from 1989 to 2006 where he was a member of the editorial board of AA Files for many years. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Politecnico in Milan, Paris-Malaquais, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, TU Wien, the University of Limerick in Ireland and a Visiting Design Critic at Harvard’s GSD. He resumed teaching at the AA in 2019.

30.10.2024, 7 PM

Online via zoom

Lecture organized within the MA Studio LES ÉTOILES
Prof. Sandra Bartoli, Prof. Björn Martenson