EW-NS Township Today

The cycle of East-West / North-South exhibitions and meetings to make humans live, there, still, differently, inaugurated on 27 May 2004 in Bordeaux, was devoted to studies that contribute to the renewal of worldwide architectural thought and creation. In what way does architecture lay new foundations for our urban civilization? How can we simultaneously reflect on the local and the global, the near and the far, the urgent and the temporary, migrations and borders, comfort and beauty, luxury and necessity, dreams and utility? How should we think about architecture? The confrontation of creations, experiments, urban situations, and the diversity of projects submitted highlights the circulation of ideas and practices everywhere. The works exhibited by architects, video artists, and photographers are subjects, objects, or pretexts for debate or reflection on the challenges facing urban societies at the beginning of the 21st century. How do architects conceive architecture and the city for populations that are often tempted by identity-based withdrawal or an obsession with security? What is the use of design when meeting the essential need to provide shelter? How does the architect manage the transition from the desire for an absolute work of art to the reality of the project and its constraints - whether it is a question of exceptional programs, major works, or ordinary programs that are a challenge for the creation of a living environment? In what way does the combination of approaches at work in the practical and theoretical fields of architecture, urban planning, and art – involving the economic, cultural, and social spheres – invent new manners of practicing architecture and anticipate new lifestyles and new ways of producing space, in the service of “living in”?

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