(DE)CONSTRUCTING THE CITY
“Tout est paysage, une architecture habitée, projets et réalisations de Simone et Lucien Kroll”, 3 June - 14 September, Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine, 1, place du Trocadéro, Paris 16, T +33(0)1 58 51 52 00.
For more than 50 years Simone (born 1928) and Lucien Kroll (born 1927) have been tirelessly fighting in favour of a more humanized architecture thanks to projects, lectures, articles and books to defend and develop another possible approach to architecture. Fighting on several fronts: ideas and facts, theory and practice, form and content. They have opposed thrift to wastage and humanity to egocentrism. Their approach attempts to show the mechanisms which tend to destroy what they call “vicinitude”, that “living together-ness” which fosters solidarity and encourages benevolent relationships. Their studio (Homeusers) has worked on over 300 projects in Rwanda, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and France, where it has taken part in many competitions to rehabilitate large housing developments.