Experiencing the earth - student work
The exhibition features models created by students in semester 8 as part of the EXPE 806 “Experimenting with earth” course, directed by Anne Boyadjian and Marie Biaudet.
OBJECTIVE
The aim is to use practical experience to complement the school’s theoretical approach to the question of materiality in architecture. This is achieved through architectural representation, which, as an expression of project thinking, offers great potential for experimentation with materials, in conjunction with the design process.
Linking thought to gesture, experimenting with materials with your hands, becoming concretely aware of their nature, qualities and requirements, in order to explore and design with them, in the manner of a craftsman, a model expressing a sensitive architectural intention.
CONTENTS
This course enables students to broaden their palette of architectural representation tools offered at the school to include earthen materials. It introduces them to the production of stoneware-type clay pieces, using the slab-modeling technique, followed by enameling and Raku firing.
The first step is to make a clay model of an existing building, and then to draw a renovation/extension project (design sketch), which is then modified/added to produce a final model representing the project.
Secondly, the pieces are pre-fired in a workshop outside the school (Atelier Sculpture Paris Montreuil), which hosts the students and their teachers for a day of glazing and Raku firing.
SUBJECT
This year, the subject of the experiment is the rehabilitation of the entrance to the Fortin des Goudes, a ruined building located in the Parc National de Calanques in Marseille. A place for walkers to stop and stroll, a belvedere overlooking the horizon half-buried in the rock, this site today welcomes walkers for moments of sharing and contemplation of nature. Modifications to the site will allow for the creation of a reception area, convivial areas and small new buildings to house an artists’ residency. The clay model provides a poetic representation of the site.
WORKFLOW
A week at school (February 16 to 20, 2026):
- Team projects, personal models
- Plate modeling of the existing building and its modifications: fabrication of plates, cuts, assemblies, surfacing and finishing details
- The models will be built in several parts. 2 scales of representation: 1/200th and 1/50th
A day at the Sculpture Paris Montreuil workshop (in April):
- Enamelling and Raku firing, accompanied by artist Marie Biaudet
Exhibition open Monday to Friday 10am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 6pm.
