Festival des Cabanes at Villa Medici in Rome

Aug 25, 2023

In the context of Rome's Villa Medici and its beautiful gardens, the Festival des Cabanes, organized by the Académie de France and open to visitors until October 1, 2023, returns with its second edition. This year there are seven site-specific projects specially created by the collectives of architects and design studios ArchiSculpteurs, Atelier CRAFT, Atelier Poem, Aurel Design Urbain, Nelson Wilmotte Architectes, Offset and orizzontale.

The works explore the concept of ephemeral and non-structural with an environmentalist gaze, through the utopia of the hut. In fact, all materials are recycled or part of an ecological approach, fitting perfectly into the context of the garden, which will host the works for the next five months.

The concept of the hut is something archaic, which has belonged to man for millennia and, at the same time, has a strong childhood reference. In both cases, the hut best sums up human adaptability and the need to build a shelter, a place that can be called "home." Huts have always been designed with natural materials and even serve and adapt to the conformation of the place. In the context of the Festival des Cabanes this is exactly what happens: architecture enters into dialogue with nature, while the latter welcomes it, blending it into itself. Reflection is pushed toward a rethinking of the dwelling-environment relationship. "Between a house and a tree, choose the tree," said architect Carlo Scarpa, but as true as that may be, this festival shows us how we now have the means and knowledge to find a respectful coexistence between the two seemingly opposing discourses.

Below is a look at the seven original huts and their creators, which no doubt should be appreciated live, in their natural habitat, that of the Villa Medici.

#1 La cabane Batouto by ArchiSculpteurs invites to imagine disorder and to conceive of shelter as something instinctive and poetic, immersing oneself in nature by becoming the landscape itself.

#2 La Parasol Tree House by Atelier CRAFT is a prototype mechanical tree that reflects on the human life cycle in relation to natural cycles, particularly in the context of climate change. The structure has the function of collecting rainwater, especially at a time when rainfall is substantial and we are approaching summer rains, and redistributing water on the ground gradually during dry periods.

#3 La timidezza delle cime by Atelier Poem is a eulogy to sacred woods in which the symbolic figure is the maritime pine, the protagonist of the Roman landscape. The work is placed at the entrance to the garden, acting as a threshold, an intermediate space between outside and inside. The aesthetic effect is that of a mosaic in which an abstract transposition of the silhouette of the forest takes place.

#4 Tutto Sesto by Aurel Design Urbain fits into the space as an invitation for visitors to sit in the shade of the large pine trees in the garden, inspired by the moldings of Renaissance architecture. It interacts with the environment without invading it with the functional intention of containing visitors’ walking.

#5 AWA by Nelson Wilmotte Architectes is the new creation COPACABANON, is a self-contained hut designed to be placed in a solitary area. Its aesthetics inevitably hark back to traditional Japanese constructions, thanks to its simple lines and small size (8 m²) capable of containing all domestic spaces.

#6 The bridge of the project Vivere Pontis by offset stages the crossing of hedgerows and the path through a series of levels that allow for an ascent at various rates, so as to provide new perspectives on the landscape.

#7 Libraire 7L by orizzontale hosts a selection of books that highlight the interactions between architecture and nature. This selection explores the work of architects, artists, photographers and philosophers.