At EMADU, an inaugural lecture about a new approach to architectural modernity

On the occasion of the launch of its lecture series, the School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of the Euromed University of Fes (EMADU - UEMF) hosted Mr. Clément Blanchet, architect, urban planner, teacher and French critic, for a lecture entitled “Context Is Our Modernity. Architecture, Climate and Transformation”.

This meeting offered a reflection on how architecture could today be renewed from what already exists. In a context marked by climate change, resource scarcity and changing territories, architectural modernity was thus considered no longer as a rupture, but as an ability to transform, adapt, repair and prolong what already exists.

The lecture placed context at the heart of the architectural project, considering climatic and geographic data, built heritage, uses, materials, construction practices and social realities as components likely to nourish design and guide the transformation of territories.

This reflection also led to questioning the notion of progress in the act of building. Transform rather than replace, repair rather than erase, intensify rather than expand: these approaches were discussed as avenues to rethink architecture that is more attentive to resources, territories and the conditions of their evolution.

Architect and urban planner, Mr. Clément Blanchet developed a practice deployed at different scales, from interior architecture and furniture to public buildings, infrastructures and territorial strategies. His international background, marked by studies at the AA School of Architecture in London, at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and at the University of Illinois at Chicago, before obtaining his degree with honors at the School of Architecture in Versailles, has nourished an approach at the crossroads of research, design and construction. Since 2017, he has also served as the advisory architect to the City of Annecy.

Through this inaugural lecture, EMADU thus opened a space for reflection on contemporary developments in architectural practice and on the new relationships between architecture, climate and territorial transformation.