Frédérique Barchelard is an architect and artist who works on the notions of the domestic, of doing, of the spontaneous and of the living by articulating buildings, paintings, objects and installations. She has exhibited her works at the Collection Lambert, the Fondation Carmignac and the Arc en rêve architecture center. She has also given lectures in London at the Architectural Association and the London Metropolitan University.
Flavien Menu is an architect with a double degree in Urban Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. His work questions the notion of "inhabiting" through research, discussions, texts and project development. His first book, New Commons for Europe, proposes a European overview of spontaneously initiated projects to develop new commons. Flavien Menu has taught at the London Architectural Association and given lectures at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Tate Modern, and the Architectural Association.
The two architects work together on the concept of “living”. The first chapter of this project, Habiter ensemble (Living Together), was initiated at the Architectural Association in London and resulted in the book New Commons for Europe by Flavien Menu. Its second part, developed at the Villa Medici, where the two architects were residents between 2019 and 2020, proposes a reflection on how to inhabit the present. It lead to the presentation of an exhibition at the Arc en Rêve architecture center, the Collection Lambert and the Villa Médicis. From this project was also born the Proto-Habitat, a prototype of a modular house at scale 1, as well as a second book project. The third chapter of this project, entitled Habiter le monde (Living in the world), will be developed within the Cité internationale des arts and will open the reflection on forms of habitability that go beyond anthropocentrism.