Annuel Optimiste d’Architecture 2008
French Touch
2008 is the second edition of the Optimistic Annual. While the 2007 edition was done on a whim, the 2008 edition follows a busy year for French Touch, which was invited to design the French Pavilion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale.
Our collective consists of 16 agencies, active in the field of architectural production and reflection, who come together to discuss and promote French architecture.
Read more: Annuel Optimiste d’Architecture 2008For this second edition of the Optimistic Annual, we selected 61 projects produced in 2008 by 55 agencies. This selection reflects an ambitious body of work that questions programs, contexts, and expressions of sustainable development through demanding and inventive contemporary architectures. Diversity is certainly one of the strengths of the production that we appreciate.
This French ability to tailor projects to each request results in varied proposals—in their forms, images, functions, and constructions—that precisely blurs a more straightforward identification compared to a homogeneous production. This is the strength of what is happening in France right now and the reason for the selective inventory work we undertake. For this Annual, the jury, composed of the 25 members of French Touch, selected 61 buildings from 210 “applicants.”
Each project was visited by a French Touch architect, who brings their critical perspective and shares their passion for architecture in the Annual.
Program
Edition
Editing and production
French Touch
Schedule
2008
