FUTURS OF ARCHITECTURE

ArchiLab designates the 1st International Architectural Meetings to be held in Orléans. This event is intended to be renewed yearly and should primarily serve as a meeting ground offering expositions, roundtables, and workshops.

A decidedly pluralistic event, ArchiLab 1999 is bringing together some thirty architects from approximately ten different countries - all either engaged in research or futurology, and whose experimental or theoretical projects or realisations are paving the way for an innovative field encompassing aesthetics with social and urban development. The first edition of ArchiLab is devoted to the changes occurring in the architect's profession.

The architect's positioning, the re-evaluation of available technical means, international standardisation as opposed to specific cultural norms, the diversification in the architectural trades, and the renewed attention paid to urban issues as viewed from the global perspective, will constitute the selected areas for joint reflection. ArchiLab 2000 will largely focus on urban issues.

ArchiLab is an event initiated by the City of Orléans to further assert its preoccupation with architectural and urban concerns, its resolve to foster international openness, and also its special interest in innovation and creativity. ArchiLab benefits from the support of the Centre Regional Council and from the Ministry of Culture and Communication (Regional Cultural Affairs Department; Visual Arts Delegation; Architecture and Heritage Department; International Affairs Department).

The ArchiLab Commissionership is being ensured by the FRAC Centre (Centre Region Contemporary Art Fund Collection) whose art & architecture collection, assembled since 1991, includes architectural projects dating from the 50s up until today. This collection, both of national and international scope, is widely circulated throughout France and abroad through expositions and publications.