Marc Barani "Body To Body: Architecture as Physical and Visual Experience"

Marc Barani – one of the leading contemporary French architects is recipient of various architectural awards and has been elected to French Académie des Beaux Arts in 2018.

After studying architecture in Marseilles and scenography at the Villa Arson in Nice, he went on to study anthropology in Nepal. He established his architectural studio in 1989. His first œuvre was decisive: he designed the extension of the St Pancras graveyard in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, the resting-place of both his ancestors and of Le Corbusier, whose Cabanon he also restored (1986-1991).

In 2007, the delivery of Nice’s new and singular multimodal hub, which binds together an otherwise dislocated space, earns him the Moniteur’s ‘Silver Set Square’ award. Five year later comes the Grand Prix National d’Architecture, crowned by the ‘Tenir lieu’ exhibition held at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in 2019. The Millennium Footbridge in Contes (2000-2001) with Bernard Pagès, a private villa on the
Côte d’Azur (2000-2004), the church of Sainte-Croix in Chelles (2005-2008) with Martin Szekely, the Eric Tabarly Bridge in Nantes (2005-2011), council housing in Nice (2010-2014), Nancy’s Congress Centre (2007-2014), the Rafic Hariri memorial tomb in Beirut (2010-2017),
the auditorium of the Institut de France (2011-2018), the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles (2014-2019), the High Court of Aix-en-Provence (2012-2021), experimental housing in Bordeaux (2016-2024), Bagneux’s railway station (2013-2025): this anthological list betrays the polysemy of Barani’s studio and its ability to work upon eminently varied projects and to design new processes of construction.

Carried out by a multidisciplinary team, his projects are anchored in the metaphysical ground and articulate both horizontals and verticals with a wholly Romanesque voluptuous rigour. If radicality is a root, then Marc Barani’s architecture is eminently radical. When
building is always founding, then elevating.