Sandra Barclay; Jean-Pierre Crousse
We are fascinated by the influence of culture on these architects. Their working lives span the Atlantic Ocean, where they began their practice in Paris and then returned to Peru. When they observe the world, they speak about building in Europe, where the focus is on detailing, the illusion of control and efficiency. When they speak about building in Peru, in their view, it is possible to “nurture imperfection”, by which they mean that it is possible in Peru to harness local building methods in a way that liberates architecture and allows architects “a chance to wonder”, with limited resources, with the freedom to invent.
Discussing their Museum of Sitio Julio C. Tello, the architects describe “the patina left by builders in the polished cement gives the museum a ceramic look that resembles the pre-Columbian ceramics that are exposed inside”, where a red-hued pozzolan cement merges the new building with the tones of the surrounding desert.
In the projects they present, they are searching like archaeologists, they position contemporary architecture as the silent testimony of landscape, movement and materiality, as tender and abstract human enclosures in front of oceans and deserts with infinite space. YF+SMcN
YF+SMcN