The origins of architectural research in France

Abstract

The hypothesis that led to the identification of the need for an architectural research policy was born in the mid-1960s. It arose from the conviction that architectural lectures worthy of the name could not do without a publicly-organized and financed knowledge-building system. Professor at the Collège de France from 1952 to 1986, André Lichnerowicz even believed that the paths of experimentation for this architectural research should extend to the development of the architectural project. In 1970, his report launched a ministerial policy focused on fundamental research, while another, in a rival ministry, was involved in more applied research, along the winding paths of experimentation.

Eric Lengereau

Eric Lengereau has been Director of the Caen/Cherbourg School of Art and Media since 2010. An architect and urban planner, he holds a doctorate from the University of Paris 1. From 2000 to 2010, he was head of the Office of Architectural, Urban and Landscape Research at the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, before taking on the task of drafting the Vocabulaire de l'architecture contemporaine for the same ministry.

He is the author of L'État et l'architecture. Une politique publique? (2001) and edited the collective work Architecture et construction des savoirs. Quelle recherche doctorale? (2008).