Review | Michel Desvigne at Les Causeries 2018 in Paris

On Thursday 8 November 2018, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture in Belleville invited the French landscape architect Michel Desvigne to give a lecture on the relationship between drawing and draft design. This internationally-renowned specialist has already collaborated with Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas as well as Herzog & de Meuron and has helped to transform landscapes all around the world. Michel Desvigne endeavours to respect the traces of historical legacy remaining at the places where he works, and he plans his projects on the basis of several carefully selected aspects: Natural mechanisms, textures and the borders of woodland and meadowland are his three red lines that help him to shape prototypes from public spaces.

A graduate botanist and geologist, his practical work is founded upon his interest in the complex mechanisms that shape a landscape, an interest nourished by his experiments in shape and by a defined political attitude. By seeking to incorporate slowness, composition and simplicity in his work, this landscape specialist runs counter to any formal academic approach, preferring instead to play with the creation of shapes. As a critic of a large proportion of the way urbanisation has taken place over the last fifty years, he seeks to redefine the outer limits of his discipline and the programmes offered to him, relocating administrative boundaries to invigorate the projects to which he is committed and which aim to enhance the environmental spaces he works on to great effect.

Interview with Michel Desvigne

Find the Video-Interview on our YouTube-Channel.