The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | Didier Fiúza Faustino // Mésarchitecture

A studio building conceived as an architectural tool for the French conceptual artist — and friend of Fiúza Faustino — Jean-Luc Moulène.

Coming to life in a new building next to an old farm complex in the countryside outside the village of Saint-Langis-lès-Mortagne, in the Normandy region of France, the space builds a new studio outpost outside of Paris for the artist.

“Each moment in the day Jean-Luc changes his activity: from 6 to 8 he draws, from 9 on he produces models, and so on. His activity is a kind of choreography, from one moment to another, to another. So my point was to create a space that allows him to adapt his trajectories according to his needs.”

To conceptualize this project, a precise and minimal language was developed around gesture, work, and creation to best meet the needs of the artist: in his different modes of production, in the use of his tools, on the scale of both the hand and the machine. More intimate spaces, conducive to reflection and rest, have also been created — all linked to different modes of light treatment (natural and artificial) and to perspectives taken within the space. At night, the structure and its open windows are almost reminiscent of a collection of solar panels, referencing its outward gaze and environmental approach to interior. 

From the outside, the building is composed of a series of identical volumes distributed in constant offset over five parallel 4m wide bays. Each of these volumes has a north-facing translucent sloping façade; a north-south roof slope terminating in an opaque glass wall in continuity with the roof. Inside, the assembly defines an open space of 265 m² on the ground under 8m of height at the ridge, cut in its centre by an east-west fault where the entrance and the access to a mezzanine of 100 m² are located.

The walls and roofs are made of prefabricated wood-framed caissons fixed to a reinforced concrete slab and covered with a waterproof black rubber membrane. This uniform matt black skin transforms the building into a shadow, making it disappear into its environment like a building not meant to be seen; only used. The structure is pared down to its barest essentials — in this case referring to an ultimate site for creative practice.

The lighting in the pavilion is designed specifically for the atelier by Fiúza Faustino, and the lamps will appear as a scenographic element in EXIST/RESIST; the first institutional exhibition surveying the artist-architect’s three decades of practice, opening this fall at MAAT in Lisbon.