Thematic area 2:
Transitions: History and Ecologies of Architectural Models (THEMA)


The researchers in this area are convinced that the transformation of the existing system is a major lever for the ecological transition - in the era of Anthropocene lucidity - they make it the main focus of their research, accompanying it with an understanding of the transition between theory and practice, between discourse, narrative and reality.

The existing is perceived as a resource, studied from the material to the large territory, in France as well as internationally. It is analyzed through the prism of design processes (thoughts, tools, actors, deliverables), constructions (program, ecology, economy, project, construction site, energy) and transformations (models and transmissions, doctrines, palimpsests, reconstructions, reversibilities, reuses, bio and geo-sourced).

We also seek to identify different models and the controversies that accompany them, raising the question of the impact of the ecological transition on architecture, the city and the territory, but also on history, teaching and research.
This axis brings together researchers from different disciplinary fields (historians, architects, sociologists, urban planners, engineers, etc.) who use different tools and methods specific to understanding the existing situation (archival and oral sources, manual and digital surveys/(re)drawings, field investigations, diagnoses, etc.)