A question of time

In architecture, space occupies a central place; sometimes to the detriment of time, which is too often neglected, even though it is a key factor for thinking about ecological, social and economic transition. Given the urgency of climate change, this symposium puts the question of time at the heart of the debate, as an essential element of architectural, urban, and territorial projects.

Reconsidering our discipline through the factor of time will enable us to reconsider architecture in relation to the temporal dynamics in which it is embedded, offering an indispensable condition for modifying its circumstances and mechanisms.

Historian Marvin Trachtenberg has emphasized that temporality is an epistemic condition that silently affects all production and experience of the built environment. In his book Building-in-Time, he outlines the modalities of building with and in time that took place in the Renaissance, in a period before the radical overturn of the human relationship to time. Indeed, mechanized, measurable and quantifiable time is a legacy of this first modernity, and oriented towards progress. German sociologist and political scientist Hartmut Rosa develops precisely this aspect in his book Acceleration: a Social Critique of Time, showing how the question of temporality is becoming increasingly apparent in the subsequent crises of modernity that we are currently experiencing or enduring at an accelerated pace. If the question of time becomes more central in our contemporary debate, how do environmental problems reintroduce temporality into architectural practice?

The exponential depletion of resources and the polluting character of the building industry confront us with the limits of continuous progress. Time is no longer conceivable in its linear progression, but should be addressed in a renewed manner. The dynamics that have hitherto governed the world – ‘the tempest of progress’, to borrow a phrase from Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History – have not stopped dragging us towards a future that risks turning into a catastrophe. Isn’t the introduction of ‘counter-time’ essential if we are to break out of the trajectories we’ve embarked upon? Are these the premises of a future that will – by force of circumstances – be radically different? Refusing to remain passive in the face of this accelerating process, this conference proposes to think from now on about time and temporalities that determine the course of things. It calls for more resilient, more inclusive counter-dynamics, and explores ways of establishing greater resonance with the world.

26 SEPTEMBRE 2024

LONGUE DURÉE/URGENCE

LONGUE DURÉE/EMERGENCY

9:00 reception

9:15 opening by Julien Bargeton and Susanne Stacher

9:30 introduction by Pierre Caye

10:00 coffee

LONGUE DURÉE

Penser et agir avec le temps long, les temporalités qui transcendent l’individu : transgénérationnelles et autrequ’humaines.

Thinking and acting in the long term, with temporalities that transcend the individual: transgenerational and other-thanhuman.

10:20 Luc Baboulet, L'histoire aux sentiers qui bifurquent. Pour une géohistoire architecturale

10:45 Olivier Gaudin, Hériter contre le temps. Sens critique et culture historique

11:10 Sebastian Carcamo, Can built environment be harmless?

11:35 Xiaojun Zhang & Peter W. Ferretto, Durée: Forms of Time in the Transitioning Resilient Villages in the Megacity of Greater Bay Area in China

12:00 Hélène Marcoz, Paysages changeants (vidéo)

12:25 coffee

12:35 round table

animation : Susanne Stacher & Cauê Capille

13:15 lunch

URGENCE/EMERGENCY

Réponses à l’inopérativité des agendas politiques. Prises de position dans un horizon temporel conflictuel pour des transitions sociétales et environnementales.

Responding to the inoperativeness of political agendas. Taking a stance on societal and environmental transitions in a conflicting timeframe.

14:30 Alain Guez, Quelle plasticité chronotopique pour un monde habitable ?

14:55 Ingrid Taillandier & Emilie Gascon, Intensification du chemin de l'eau

15:20 Mathieu Mercuriali, Les temps de la Méditerranée. Les îles comme prototype de territoires d’anticipation

15:45 Marc Armengaud, Contre toute attente

16:10 Alejandro Campos Uribe, The Density of Time (vidéo)

16:20 coffee

16:50 round table

animation : Florian Hertweck & Véronique Patteeuw

17:30 Véronique Patteeuw & Léa-Catherine Szacka en conversation avec Emmanuelle Chiapone-Piriou, Book presentation « It’s About Time »

18:00 break

19:00 keynote lecture by Antoine Picon

20:00 cocktail dinner

27 SEPTEMBRE 2024

CYCLES/TRANSITOIRE

CYCLES/TRANSITORY

9:00 reception

9:30 introduction by Stéphane Bonzani

10:00 coffee

CYCLES

Le temps comme ensemble de processus et de rythmes avec lesquels agir. La multiplicité, la répétitivité et les dérèglements temporels comme leviers stratégiques.

Time as processes and rhythms to work with. Multiplicity, repetitiveness and temporal disruption as strategic opportunities.

10:20 Marija Maric, Beyond Before and After: Repair as a Habitual Practice

10:45 Matthias Armengaud, Jachère urbaine

11:10 Louis Destombes. Economie circulaire, ou comment tourner de plus en plus vite

11:35 Jean-Pierre Chupin, Du cycle de vie. Analogie biologique, cyclicité et rétroactions

12:05 Philippe Rizzotti, Enjeux contemporains de l'architecture face à la quantification carbone

12:30 coffee

12:40 round table

animation : Paolo Amaldi & David Malaud

13:20 lunch

TRANSITOIRE/TRANSITORY

Ce qui ne dure pas. Le temps comme motif d’incertitudes et de ruptures. Le temps dans son caractère transitoire, fragmenté et fragmentant. Inachèvements, suspensions, contingences pour et dans l’architecture.

What doesn't last. Time as a source of uncertainty and disruption. Time as transitory, fragmented and fragmenting. Inachievements, suspensions, contingencies for and in architecture.

14:30 Tristan Denis, Architectures hétérochroniques

14:55 Adria Daraban, Fragmentary Temporalities

15:20 Ayesha Safraz, Temporal Territories / Emergent Ecologies

15:45 Carlotta Darò, Le temps suspendu de la salle d’attente

16:10 Marc-Antoine Durand, La critique à contretemps de l’histoire – une leçon banhaminenne

16:25 Mathieu Berteloot, Le temps de construire (vidéo)

16:35 coffee

17:0 round table

animation : Véronique Patteeuw & Susanne Stacher

17:40 break

18:00 end of the conference

18:25 closing by Francis Rambert

18:40 apéritif