The world is changing, and the ways of inhabiting it are changing too.
More than ever, architecture, cities, and the tangible and intangible territories of human habitation must be considered in the light of what no longer exists and what has not yet happened.
Designed by arc en rêve, constellation.s is a project devoted to new ways of inhabiting the world. It takes the form of a major exhibition and a series of presentations, lectures and themed events.
In response to the global transformations that are changing the conditions in which we live, constellation.s presents individual and collective initiatives that suggest perspectives, with respect to tomorrow’s challenges, for how we makes cities. In response to fear, identitarian closure and extremism, constellation.s intends to use critical thinking to understand the world we live in.
In response to the current surfeit of images, discourse, and spectacle, constellation.s offers examples of creativity and of how ordinary people are inventing their daily lives.
constellation.s presents multi-disciplinary points of view: from researchers, writers, architects, engineers and economic leaders who are reflecting upon the realities of our era.
constellation.s will feature experiments, testimonials, processes and situations which, in the four corners of the world, shed light on possible new horizons for living together in our complex societies. Here and there all over the world, practices are emerging that challenge and undermine old certainties. Strategies embracing the unstable and the uncertain, the tangible and the intangible, are changing the uses and production methods of architecture.
It is these micro-phenomena, this constellation of micro-initiatives, that the exhibition, events and publications set out to highlight. We know that the crisis we are experiencing cannot be reduced to economic or social parameters alone. It is also, and above all, a political, ecological and cultural crisis that calls for a change in civilisation. This means that it is vital to place culture and knowledge at the heart of the challenges of community awareness and democracy to light the way for the future of our societies. Because the primary purpose of architecture is to provide Mankind with somewhere to live, it must be thought of in relation to actual use, and it must be produced with the inhabitants themselves.
To forge connections and create meaningful places, it must reinvent the way it relates to the world.
constellation.s provides a forum for thought, in order to make the new conditions for human habitation intelligible; it will highlight practices that take the risk of making the future meaningful;
and it provides an opportunity to share innovative processes that can point to new ways of inhabiting the world.
Francine Fort
director arc en rêve centre d’architecture
