Philippe Rizzotti and Gonzague Lacombe (Collectif Exyzt) – Contemporary Spatial Practices

The EXYZT collective was formed in Paris in 2002 on one simple idea: building and living together. Members of the collective are Nicolas Henninger, Philippe Rizzotti, François Wunschel, Pier Schneider and Gil Burban, all graduates from the Paris La Villette School of Architecture, who joined together after first common intervention: the architecture of the Rab. Exyzt proposes to make the user (again) the center of the design process and wants the project to be the expression of all the people who build it and live in it, with all their respective differences and individualities. They for diversity rather than uniformity. In its projects, events, installations and exhibitions, exyzt explores experimental practices and situations, elaborates scenarios and strategies for collective building, integrates interactive and flexible tools in urban and architectural production and creates a trans-disciplinary and multicultural platform of action and exchange. In 2006, exyzt was invited by French architect Patrick Bouchain to conceive the French Pavilion of the Venice Biennial of Architecture. In the Biennial?s over-mediatised context, where the representation of architecture takes the place of architecture itself, Bouchain and Exyzt created the Metavilla project. With its kitchen, hotel, sauna and miniature swimming pool on the roof, the French pavilion was transformed into a place of exchange, a meeting point, where architecture was inhabited and where visitors became active participants. The Metavilla had changed the concept of the pavilion and introduced new ideas idea of exhibiting architecture. In their lecture, Philippe Rizzotti and Gonzague Lacombe will present the group’s work and recent projects.