" Born from an shared idea from a young director and two architects newly-graduated, Architecture by Road is the world tour of the architecture through the habitat. At the end, a series of portraits in several documentary films, which open the reflection on the habitat of the XXIth century, between traditional and contemporary examples. The first chapter: the Far East "

Nowadays, a standardization takes place in the cities and in the architectures. The lifestyles, the architectural styles and the landscapes become widespread through the hudges metropolis around the world. We find the same skyscrapers from Hong-Kong to New York, while 10 000 km separate them, and

climates, populations and cultures are completely different.

The habitat is a universal concept, but each civilization around the world expressed the wealth of their cultures there, through their habits and the constraints of the different territories. We drew a road around the world in six steps, through all the cultures and the civilizations which built the world.

We are going to make images and to document the diversity of the architectures of habitats and the lifestyles around the world. We are leaving to meet the architects and the contextual examples of architecture, which are inspired by cultures and by territories into which they fit.

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The 1st step of a world project:

The 11th of March, 2014, it is the departure of the 1st step of the project: "Far East". Then it will be: Americas, South and wester Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania. We will travel with all types of transportation to be closer to our subject and to have a certain authenticity: by foot, hitchhiking, with boat, tuc-tuc or bicycle,...

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What will look like the project?

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Every month:

To follow the adventure, we will produce one video a month, articles, drawings and pictures about the travel, the meetings made along the rooad, and presenting the habitat we met. You will also be able to follow the interventions of the architects which will answer to our subject and our questioning.

At the return of each of step:

- Documentary films focusing on the habitat of each geographical area. A movie which synthesize the chapter into the subject and the architectural problems of the geographical areas with always as main thread: the adventure.

- Lectures and exhibitions within the partner institutions, in the schools of architecture and the primary schools. The association " à la bonne échelle " who is carrying the project Architecture by Road has as his main objective the sensitization to the architecture.

- Publications, narratives and photo book, and few articles published in several magazines such as 'A'A'.

The intentions of the film :

Discover and sensitize :

The architecture is a discipline, where few people are interested because often disenchanted by architects' whims. Architects who some time are too much distant from a certain reality. Architecture by Road, through a new adventure, and many examples with human scale, will give an huge place to the the architectures strongly connected to those who live in and those who feel it.

The camera of the documentary film will shoot the architecture at the level of human, and telling with simplicity the meetings and the feelings of the unexpected. Our three young team members, with interviews and approachable interventions will restore to the architecture a certain closeness with those for whom it exists.

Esthetics in the authentic :

A fine esthetics will be given to each image, in particular to the interviews and the illustrations.

The photographic aspect of every plan will be preferred to the unjustified movements. Sometimes we will keep the authenticity trough the unexpected moments, or meetings.

True characters :

Give the narration to the people who lives in the explored habitat is an essential aspect of the initiative of Architecture by Road. To go straight on the spot is the best way to let express themselves the inhabitants of a region. To collect their point of view, their notices and their hopes, is absolutely essential in our different movies.

The words of the specialists met (architects, engineers, urbanist, historians etc..) will come to give a scientific vision. These sequences of interview, which can be taken on the moment or in a more composed way, will be the counterpart of the travel scenes.

The Mentors :

The mentors of the project agreed to support us along this adventure. Most of them contributed to the elaboration of the subject of the documentary.

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The partners :

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Who we are ?

We prepare the project for more than a year, to build the subject, his questioning and of course on his path. We worked with our sponsors: architects, town planners, artists, philosophers as well as professionals of the broadcasting.

We are two architects newly-graduated from the ENSAM, the national school of architecture of Montpellier, Antoine and Tristan, and a traveler director, Jérémy.

Each of us are lovers of the image and will improve the esthetics of the movie. Work in and for the image is the profession of Jérémy, but Architecture is a subject which also affects him. He will bring an outside look of the world of the architecture, it will facilitate the obvious fact of the subject to all.

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Antoine :

Antoine is a young architect graduated from the school of Montpellier. It is his relatives and his family, that very early have him transmitted the travel's genes. Multiple adventures, with his close friends will follow each other. His skills for writtong, in analysis and representation will allow the work to grow. Before beginning his studies, he was for a while a mason on huge construction sites. The practice and the experimentation are for him the real places of learning and of sharing knowledge.

Jérémy :

Jérémy is a young director with a atypical course. Very early, at the end of his studies, his ambitions and his passion for the image allowed him to realize his first documentary during a project of 6 months in South America. Collaborations on movies of exploration for France5, Arte, Journey and Canal+, in particular with Gedeon Programmes will follow each other. His dreams and his personal envies get involved in his own professional spirit. From 21 years, he worked already with huge names of the cinema as Werner Herzog. His experience as well as its taste for the image always allow him to find a fine and a personal esthetics for each of his movies. His spirit of adventure urges him to never stay for a very long time in the same place.

Tristan :

Tristan is the initiator of the project, he is young architect grtaduated from the school of Montpellier. His nature adventuress and always ready to take off, he knew how to feed the project with his ambitions. Photography is one of his passion, like drawing. His motivation, his determination and his experience will be good trump cards for the project. He began to travel even before knowing how to walk, his family passionate about traveling, quickly taught him how to walk, to avoid carrying him during the trips. He used to live very early close to the construction universe and the Architecture, he developed a curiosity which it didn't stop to increase along his own course.

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Talk, and share about the project around you !

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Here are the videos of the project

Teaser of the Project :

Interview of François Fontès, architect and mentor of the project