Frédéric Borel

Long totemic volumes, weightless masks, colored planes or furtive parallelepipeds, Frédéric Borel's buildings are similar to habitable sculptures, etching a dreamlike character onto the landscape. The physical journey, developed for the PAN XIII “Building the Suburbs”, becomes purely optical in the almost baroque scenographies of these Parisian creations. Large anthropomorphic figures stretch out into abstract masses to form the EDF headquarters in Puteaux or the University of Agen. Likewise, the relationship with the ground, addressed on rue Oberkampf, is explored in depth in the Laval courthouse before being centered in the design of the building on rue Pelleport. Questioning the essential notions of function, light and form, the work ends with the latest urban projects which show that these games with free volumes fighting against the Haussmannian universe or the crisis-stricken suburbs, far from being simple iconoclastic gestures, outline the beginnings of a utopian city, more open and generous.

23 x 30.5 cm

224 pages

440 color illustrations

ISBN: 978-2-9092-8355-5

Text in French only