Bookstore release: "Mai 68. Parole à l'architecture", Éditions de la Villette

© Éditions de la Villette

The book brings together some thirty interviews with key figures from this historic turning point, including Jean-Louis Cohen, François Very, Bernard Huet, Roland Castro, Henri Ciriani, Monique Eleb and Jacques Lucan… Curated by Caroline Maniaque, Éléonore Marantz and Jean-Louis Violeau, who also curated the exhibition “Mai 68. L’Architecture aussi!” exhibition at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in summer 2018, the book restores the kaleidoscopic words of this “generation” and puts them into historical perspective.

Mai 68. Architecture speaks
Caroline Maniaque, Éléonore Marantz and Jean-Louis Violeau (dir.)
With interviews by Ginette Baty-Tornikian, Philippe Boudon, Jean Castex, Roland Castro, Henri Ciriani, Pierre Clément, Jean-Louis Cohen, Florence Contenay, Monique Eleb, Olivier Girard, Thierry Gruber, Bernard Huet, Jean-Paul Jungmann, Jean-Pierre Le Dantec, Gil Leparmentier, Yves Lion, Jacques Lucan, David Mangin, Michel Marot, Philippe Panerai, Bernard Paurd, Christian de Portzamparc, Bruno Queysanne, Paul Quintrand, Alain Sarfati, Yannis Tsiomis and Françoise Very.
Collection: Penser l’espace
Release date: May 2026

This collection of interviews tells the collective story of May 68 in the world of architecture. Twenty-seven architects, urban planners, engineers, sociologists, historians, civil administrators and activists from diverse intellectual and political backgrounds testify. Involved, in one way or another, in this moment of historical upheaval, they recount their individual and shared trajectories, and the changes in which they took part. Indeed, the period from 1962 to 1977 saw a major generational renewal, a refounding of teaching and research frameworks with the creation of new institutions – from architecture teaching units to the Institut de l’environnement, via CORDA – but also a significant reorientation of architectural and urban practice. Gathered and commented by Caroline Maniaque, Éléonore Marantz and Jean-Louis Violeau, curators of the Mai 68 : l’architecture aussi! exhibition at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in summer 2018, this polyphonic account captures so many facets of a founding past that still resonates.

Buy the book online
Two events accompany the book’s release:
  • On Sunday June 7, at 3pm, the book’s directors will be on hand to meet readers at the Éditions de la Villette stand at the Fontainebleau Art History Festival art book fair.
  • On Tuesday June 30, at 7:30pm, they will present the book at the Volume bookshop, 47 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth (Paris, 4th). Signing followed by a drink.

News

  • Toyō Itō's inner landscapes

    While in March, ENSAPLV celebrated several decades of educational, scientific and human relations for a week in the presence of a delegation from its Japanese partner universities, the month of April is marked by the publication of this collective work by Maki Onishi, Toyō Itō, Benoît Jacquet and Yann Nussaume in the “Paysage et Architecture” collection from éditions Arléa.

  • Making visible. Values of ordinary things

    Just published in Éditions Boa’s DÉCRIRE collection, this collective work is edited byAlessia de Biase, architect-urban planner, HDR professor in SHS at ENSA Paris-la Villette and director of the LAA-LAVUE research unit, and Emilie Pillon, architect, doctoral student in anthropology at LAA-LAVUE.

    As with the other volumes in the collection, one or other artist is involved in a dialogue with the theme of the book: photographer and video artist Valérie Jouve contributed to this work, alongside Catherine Deschamps & Pascale Absi, Philippe Bonnin, Chloé Gaspari, Federica Gatta, Flavia Pertuso & Étienne Kretzschmar, Nadja Monnet & the Momkin association, Mina Saidi Shahrouz, Maud Santini, Anne-Claire Vallet and Valeria Volpe.

  • ENSA Paris-la Villette on Japanese time. A week of dialogue and exchange

    ENSA Paris-la Villette is delighted to welcome a large delegation from its Japanese partner universities from March 9 to 16: The University of Tokyo, Meiji University, Chiba University, Tokyo City University, Institute of Science Tokyo, Kyoto University, Kyushu University.

    Their visit, made possible thanks to funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ program, is accompanied by a number of events that will benefit the school’s students, alumni and teaching staff, most of which will also be open to the general public. Course presentations, round tables and conferences, as well as an exhibition, will provide ample opportunity for meetings and exchanges.

    This event is intended both as a retrospective celebrating the educational, scientific and human relations that have linked ENSAPLV and its Japanese academic partners for several decades, and as an opportunity to initiate new research and educational projects co-constructed on promising themes for the future.

  • 3007 visitors to Open Day 2026

    On Saturday February 7, ENSA Paris-la Villette welcomed a large number of visitors who came to find out more about studying architecture and the specific features of ENSA Paris-la Villette: the range of initial and specialized courses on offer, admissions procedures, the course of studies, international mobility, careers in architecture and professional integration, student life…

    Alone, with friends or family, visitors wandered around the school premises to discover the student work on display (architectural projects, performing arts and techniques, plastic arts, etc.) and to meet students, teachers and administrative staff, who were on hand to answer any questions.

    Couldn’t make it?
    On this page, you’ll find all the information you need to make your choice.