With "La Mémoire vive", the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine immerses us in the projects of this architect and urban planner, winner of the Grand Prix national de l'architecture, who makes the ancient endure in the contemporary.

Memory, creation, space and time: these are the watchwords of Philippe Prost. At the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, the 65-year-old architect and urban planner invites us to discover "his project factory" through his studio. Here, designs and monuments are in constant motion, restored, renovated, preserved, rehabilitated, transformed and recycled, for contemporary rediscoveries in line with environmental challenges. This is the research and teaching work of this recipient of the Grand prix national de l'architecture in 2022, which he has been carrying out for over thirty years. The foundations of his practice lie in historical study and the link between past, present and future. His buildings are thus a journey through time, the result of a long evolutionary process of reflection and construction. This is revealed in depth in the exhibition "Living Memory", which focuses on existing heritage and ordinary buildings, where heritage rubs shoulders with "the persistence of its form and the change in its uses".

DURABILITY

The museum's exhibition space features a wide range of documents and working tools, material samples and prototypes, as well as photographs of construction sites and completed projects. The exhibition features some twenty of his most significant projects, on all scales and spanning all eras. This military architecture enthusiast notably designed the Belle-Île-en-Mer citadel, built by Vauban. He has also worked on the Château de Caen (medieval period), the Vauban port at Antibes (Trente Glorieuses), the Hôtel de la Monnaie in Paris (Age of Enlightenment) and the stables at the Château de Versailles (Grand Siècle). Not to mention his work on the Briqueterie de Vitry-sur-Seine, the Les 26 couleurs cultural center in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry and, of course, the Anneau de la Mémoire at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, which features 600,000 names of the fallen.

TRANSFORMING REALITY

Between the living and the inert, the natural and the artificial, architecture and landscape, constructional and topographical logic, Philippe Prost brings forgotten buildings back to life, exploring the history of collective memory, whether of places, people or regions. In his "archeological reflection", this master of (re)thinking never ceases to respond to today's ecological and sustainable challenges. He optimizes the economy of means and natural resources, encourages the reuse of materials, and calls on the skills of craftsmen while adapting to the social and economic needs of the region. The scenography thus creates a dialogue between his work and the museum's permanent collection. What's more, it underscores and characterizes the profound link that establishes his projects, conceived as " anthropic compositions whose dynamism must be revealed ".

" LA MÉMOIRE VIVE"
CITÉ DE L'ARCHITECTURE ET DU PATRIMOINE
1, PLACE DU TROCADÉRO ET DU 11 NOVEMBRE, PARIS 16E
UNTIL MARCH 23, 2025
CITEDELARCHITECTURE.FR