« Terre! Land in sight! »

« Terre! Land in sight! »

Three life-size pavilions for a dialogue with the world

Three winners of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, from Mexico, Jordan and Thailand, have designed three life-size pavilions as a means of answering the crucial question of our time: how to reinvent our habitat in the face of the climate emergency and the depletion of our resources?

Each of these installations presents a vision of architecture that is based on the synergy between global and local knowledge and rooted in a unique cultural milieu: methods of self-development and vernacular know-how, green tech and local climate sciences, the global movement of goods and circular economies.

Faced with such complex challenges, these architects are moving beyond the traditional boundaries of their discipline:

• Rozana Montiel (Mexico) is emphasising the role of the architect as a political catalyst in the installation “Stand up for the Seas!”.

• Ammar Khammash (Jordan) is arguing for a dialogue between the architect and universal synergies in the installation “In search of the horizon”.

• Boonserm Premthada (Thailand) is exploring the relationship between the architect and the living in the installation “The Elephant Theatre”.

“A hundred years ago, faced with the onset of the industrial era and the brutal emergence of the metropolis, Bauhaus architects took on the ambitious challenge of, in the words of Walter Gropius, “civilising the modern world at the pace of changing societies”. Why then shouldn’t the architects of the 21^st century take on the ambitious challenge of preserving the future of the inhabited world at the pace of changing ecosystems? As demonstrative as they are entertaining, these three pavilions provide a better understanding of how architecture, too, is facing up to the great ecological disruption that separates us from the 20^th century. By inviting us to make sense of the world we live in, these pavilions reinvent the idea of progress and awaken the hope of a planet that is habitable for all living beings.”

Jana Revedin
Architect PhD and urban planner, Founding President of the Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture, professor at the École Spéciale d'Architecture Paris, curator of the exhibition.

Marie-Hélène Contal
Director of the Cultural Development Department at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, co-curator of the exhibition.

Exhibition by the Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine with the support of the Île-de-France Region.

Each year, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ recognises five architects who share the principles of sustainable development and a participatory architectural approach to the needs of societies in both the Global North and the Global South. This year’s awards will be presented on October 14^th 2022 at the Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine.