The current decompartmentalization of artistic disciplines brings about the emergence of new proposals. Architect Jean Verville demonstrates this hybridization in architectural interventions swapping the user’s experience into a spatial and pictorial experimentation, in which sensory perception is asked to transgress the physical limits of space to favor the illusory abstraction of dimensional form and produce architecture that seems free from their function and materiality. In 2017, architect Jean Verville realized IN 1 2 3, three installations combining art, architecture and domesticity. These intimate portraits present universes transposing the personalities of their occupants, while illustrating their moving collaborations with the designer. The architect infiltrates his installations with intriguing photographic proposals in which the presence of an allegorical figure proposes a new modality for appreciation of architecture.

IN 3

With his IN 3 project, architect Jean Verville proposes an architectural installation juggling with excesses and exuberance while retaining its signature of an assumed minimalism. The proposal calls for mechanisms of perception of space that break the usual patterns of domesticity. In order to satisfy the needs of everyday life, but also to subtract them from time to time in order to create a working environment that strengthens the maestro’s concentration, the bare space skillfully conceals functions in a succession of sculptural volumes. The gray tones of the raw materials unite into a volumetric entity pierced by an immense golden structure deploying to abolish the hierarchy of spaces. Offering images evolving towards abstraction, this golden ribbon, containing domestic functions as storage units, breaks up space into a single operation of powerful efficiency. The diffusion of a felted and enveloping light invests the place of a mysterious aura that contributes to its theatricality. The rich contrast between the concrete, the sumptuous golden brass and the immaculate brilliance of the white stones, creates a mineral character that encourages a feeling of opulence, intensified by the presence of a triumphant piano. Wandering in this clean and refine space, at the same time of an unusual expressivity, proposes sensations blurring the spatial perception to reveal a sculptural proposal of an extreme sophistication.

The architect

Winner of numerous prizes, and enjoying significant international diffusion, architect Jean Verville presents a diversified production of architecture, installation and scenography. The architect’s interest lies in the possibilities of hybridization between arts and architecture and their impact on the architectural creation process. A series of research stays in Japan, focusing on “Art House Projects”, led him to a reflection on the artistic experience within architecture, which he pursued as part of his PhD in Arts Studies and Practice, at University of Quebec in Montreal. In 2016, Verville joined university teaching in addition to his architectural practice and researches.

1700 p² / 160 m²

Wood, brass, concrete, quartz, marble, mirror

Collaborators:                                  

François Bodlet

Stéphane Gimbert

Steve Tousignant

photos: Maxime Brouillet