The first major retrospective in France of the work of architect and theorist Bernard Tschumi, this exhibition presents nearly 300 original works, many of which have never been on show before. Through a staging designed especially by the architect, visitors can now discover his most important projects, with the original drawings, models, sketches and collages that formed part of their design process.
The themes structuring the exhibition explore a definition of architecture not from the stylistic viewpoint, but from a series of conceptual arguments whose roots lie in film, literature, the visual arts and philosophy. "There is no architecture without an idea or concept, " wrote Tschumi, "just as there is no architecture without a means of notation. Architecture is not knowledge of form, but a form of knowledge." Tschumi's approach has radically revived architectural design methods. He notably helped to introduce the concept of deconstruction into the field of architecture, which has had a decisive influence on architectural production and theory in the US.
