Terra Incognita

R&Sie(n)
François Roche, Stéphanie Lavaux, Jean Navarro with Camille Lacadee and Clarisse Labro / Script de Julien Blervaque

Origin: Static Issue 04
Content: Text/Images

R&Sie(n) explain Terra Incognita as “an island which just appeared on the Antarctic continent, following the climatic warming, the merging of the ices.” In the museum; however, Terra Incognita is much different. They describe the installation in these terms:

“…It is an unfolding surfaces of 200 m ² in honeycomb aluminum, parametric script, computational milling with the water jet, and, elastic stretching by liquid counterweight … in unstable balance…”

The architecture of R&Sie(n) is transformative. They map the topological characteristics of a place in order to reorganize and reinterpret it. There is no break between the versions; but, instead, an intimate and fluid conversation is maintained between them. Terra Incognita/ Isla Ociosidad, the collaboration between artist Pierre Huyghe and François Roche is exemplary of the dynamic nature of R&Sie(n)’s architecture.

Eleni Axioti provides commentary on the recent exhibition of Terra Incognita/ Isla Ociosidad at Tate Modern, part of Pierre Huyghe’s Celebration Park. Images of Terra Incognita accompany it.

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Contributors:

R&Sie(n) was founded as a practice in the late 1980’s by François Roche, Stéphanie Lavaux and Jean Navarro.  “Making with…” is their way of describing their research into a critical experience of architecture through a mutation of contextual parameters. R&Sie has been invited to the last five Biennales of Architecture in Venice, has taught in London at Bartlett School, in Vienna at TU, in 2004, at ESARQ, in Barcelona, invited as guest professor in 2005-06 at Penn University / Philadelphia and at ESA school, Paris. R&Sie’s work has been exhibited in M.A.M., Tate Modern and the Barbican exhibition on ‘Future Cities’, and it has been published worldwide.

Eleni Axioti is a civil & structural engineer and postgraduate student of Histories & Theories of Architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. She defines herself as a spatial observer and practitioner who seeks to engage with the complex transformation of the built environment through various means: writings, photographs, designs and specific technological solutions. Currently, she is concluding her MA thesis 'On Architectural Newness'.

Associated Links:

http://www.new-territories.com/
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/pierrehuyghe/default.shtm
http://www.pierrehuyghe.com/