DA #001

Rudy Ricciotti

DA is not Art Director, but Design & Architecture.
To replace my now defunct VS column which sometimes went too far, I decided to calm down a bit and to make it more serious (to be honest, I’ve been granted a vent in parallel to Luxsure which will arrive very soon).

For this first DA, it is better not to start small, and to attack directly with a great architect, Rudy Ricciotti.

-What are your first memories of architecture?

I lived in the Camargue when I was a child, I was fascinated by the cabins and the DIY with extensions made of heterogeneous and recycled materials without any architectural concern, but the results were tender.

-What are the essential assets for an architect?

First health, then aesthetic commitment, then rage because this job is not a walk in the park. And above all, do not aspire to either wisdom or distance because the act of architecture is fundamentally psychopathic.

-What do you like most about your work?

The beginning of the studies as well as the moment of the construction site, moments to the meeting of the physicality of the architecture.

-What are your current projects?

The extension of the Louvre in the Visconti courtyard, the Rugby Stadium in Paris, the Festival Palace in Venice, the National Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille, the Cocteau Museum in Chin.

-For you, which city is the very symbol of inspiration in urban planning?

All European cities, but especially Italian cities, shaped by time and history.

-Although Europe is “an old continent”, cities are increasingly developing a strong desire for architectural identity.

Because cities need a story, a narrative, beauty, a figure. Minimalism is not a project of society of desire for architecture is legitimate and necessary to any people.

-What were your inspirations for the Louis Vuitton Tower in Japan?

Lyricism and expressionism are the structural system of the tower. On the first floor, there was no commercial activity but only the staging of the four seasons. Winter frosts on the ground, in Spring a floral parterre, in Summer a lush vegetation and in Autumn a dry tree composition. Each year would have been interpreted with an urban voyeurism because totally visible from the street by the huge glass panels.

-Did Louis Vuitton make any objections, recommendations, remarks, or were you totally free for this project?

Although this project will remain in the cards, I was very free, only the functional objectives were fixed. I found a great listening and a strong attention to the architectural question.

-How do you think architecture will evolve in the next thirty years?

The return to the values of work, of the profession. The environmental footprint will only be reduced by using more manpower and reducing technological consumerism…
The fast and the furtive, the conceptual and the digital, the deconstructed will disappear to make way once again for the art of building well and beautifully…
The love of craftsmanship and real materials for real shapes and authentic sensuality.