Pushing back the boundaries of architecture with Rudy Ricciotti

(September 2024) | On Thursday 26 September at 3 p.m., the “building, dwelling, thinking” cultural programme at Cersaie 2024 will host a conference by French architect Rudy Ricciotti, an event-within-an-event that reaffirms Cersaie’s role as a key venue for dialogue among industry professionals and leading international architects. Rudy Ricciotti has been described by French designer Philippe Stark as “a clairvoyant, untamable wild animal”, a compliment intended by Stark as the highest form of praise.

Born in Algiers in 1952, Rudy Ricciotti is a French architect of Italian origin with a studio overlooking the Mediterranean in the town of Bandol on the Côte d’Azur. He has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix National d’Architecture, the Médaille d’Or de l’Académie d’Architecture, the Auguste-Perret Prize from the International Union of Architects (UIA), Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. He is one of the most representative of a generation of architects who combine the power of creation with a deep understanding of the culture of construction. A pioneer and ambassador of concrete, he has used this material in landmark projects such as the Vitrolles Stadium (1994), the National Choreographic Centre – the Black Pavilion in Aix-en-Provence (2006), the Jean Cocteau Museum in Menton (2011), and the Department of Islamic Arts at the Louvre Museum in Paris (2012). Other notable projects include the MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations) in Marseille (2013), the Jean Bouin Stadium in Paris (2013), the Camp de Rivesaltes Memorial (2015), the multimodal interchange (PEM) at the TGV rail station in Nantes (2020), and 19M, the Manufacture des Métiers d’Art de la Mode Chanel in Paris (2021).

Projects outside France include the Nikolaisaal Philharmonic Concert Hall in Potsdam, Germany (2000), the Footbridge of Peace in Seoul, South Korea (2002), “La Boverie”, Centre International d’Art et de Culture in Liège, Belgium (2016) and the AYA tertiary complex in the Cidade Matarazzo in São Paulo, Brazil (2021).

Rudy Ricciotti is also the author of some thirty pamphlets, the most famous of which, entitled “L’architecture est un sport de combat” (Editions Textuel, 2013), develops a theme that has become a motto among many architects. In his pamphlet “L’exil de la beauté” (Editions Textuel, 2019), Rudy Ricciotti critiques the prevailing official culture of beauty, from the celebration of contemporary art to supermarket aesthetics and the mandatory reverence for nature. Ricciotti argues that this widely accepted doctrine stifles critical thinking and serves as a mask for the very unique beauties it claims to protect.

Rudy Ricciotti’s conference will be a unique opportunity to hear from a bold, visionary architect renowned for pushing the boundaries of architecture and redefining our perception of space.

19M, Manufacture des Métiers d’Art de la Mode Chanel, Paris, France 2016-2021 (© Olivier Amsellem)

See the complete Cersaie 2024 calendar of events