Exhibition Entre-deux. Une Architecture de la Résonance by Ferrier Marchetti Studio

The UQAM Design Centre in Montreal, Canada will open its cultural season on 19 September with the work of Jacques Ferrier Architecture and Sensual City Studio, which have merged their operations under the umbrella of a single, unified vision, called Ferrier Marchetti Studio (FMS) in the exhibition Entre-deux, Une Architecture de la Résonance (In-between, architecture that resonates).
Curated by Pauline Marchetti, in collaboration with Philippe Lupien, the exhibition stems from the desire to reconsider urban infrastructures from the perspective of sustainable development and the importance of human senses in the city. Ferrier Marchetti Studio places human experience at the heart of all new projects. “We take the question of senses in architecture seriously... The daily experience of city-dwellers is at the heart of our approach to design. The pleasure that can be given by the daily experience of cities has to be reconquered as an essential and vital asset of our urban lives,” explains Pauline Marchetti. 
The exhibition uses supporting materials such as a manifesto, photos, videos, models and drawings to showcase the firm’s philosophy and the many forms the urban experience can take when its significance is based on the human senses. This is in clear contrast with what is still happening in so much urban planning, where the functional city, with its desire for total control over moods and aspects, produces aseptic and decontextualized spaces. The mediocre city, with no outstanding qualities, is everywhere and it is threatening the capabilities of residents to take back their city. 
For this reason, FMS proposes to radically rethink the role of architecture and technology as a means of relieving pressure, to give everyone the opportunity of a unique, rich and sensitive experience of the city, in line with the concept of resonance, in other words, if the urban context has qualities, these also have an impact on the inhabitants. Which is why the architects go on to say: “Architecture must rise to the forefront in order to provide people with unique, rich and sensitive city experiences while foregoing geometric urbanism in lieu of the sensual city.”  
Jacques Ferrier conducted an international student workshop at UQAM in May 2019 during the International Design Week and the work of the students will also be on display during the exhibition. As part of this workshop, the students discussed the notion of the threshold as a link, a useful transition point for creating sequences of different atmospheres that are, in turn, individual experiences of collective life and of ownership. A valuable element in the creation of human-sized spaces, but in contrast with the prevailing school of thought that sees thresholds as obstacles to the logic of the city that is fully functional and dedicated to continuous mobility.
The exhibition Entre-deux, Une Architecture de la Résonance by Ferrier Marchetti Studios is a great chance to gain a better understanding of how the creative processes of these architects explore a new urban condition and develop opportunities for cities so that they can make a positive contribution to the planet’s ecological balance and to the wellbeing of the inhabitants.

Christiane Bürklein

Exhibition Entre-deux, Une Architecture de la Résonance by Ferrier Marchetti Studio
from 19 September to 27 October 2019
curated by Pauline Marchetti, in collaboration with Philippe Lupien
UQAM, Montreal, Canada
Images: see captions 
Find out more: http://www.centrededesign.com/entre-deux/