Mutations of ideas
Shared resources and tools
For unknown territories
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design representation & communication
production tools & collaboration
creation, sound design & workflows
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ecologies of collaboration
& collective practice in electronic music
towards a labor without work
virtual reality, collective intelligence & post-capitalism
productivity on the grid
ensad
design representation & communication
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Teaching ~ Contractor position
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Design, Architecture & Environment department
2023 - ongoing
Spanning over four semesters in second and third years of the Bachelor program in the Design, Architecture and Environment department, the Communication & Representation course progressively introduces a range of tools used in contemporary practices of design, architecture and landscape studies, for observing, understanding and communicating spatial intentions and analysis.
Through drawing, mapping, photography, 2D and 3D modeling, graphic design and multimedia practices, students progressively build a personal visual language across different scales and media. Alongside technical learning, the course encourages experimentation and critical reflection on the role of digital technologies in contemporary design by exploring their cultural, environmental and social implications - inviting students to question the ways they shape perception, representation and design processes.
Particular attention is given to autonomy and adaptability : rather than mastering a fixed set of software, the students learn to understand the underlying logics of digital workflows and their integration with crafting practices, allowing them to choose and combine tools according to the needs, context and sensibility of each project.
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genius loci
atmospheres & representations
L2-S1
The first module is a week long workshop focused on the concept of ambiance and its representation, as a first introduction to production tools. In partnership with the Project course run by Marion Nielsen, it explores the idea of space as a locus of sentience to develop an installation and micro-edition, questioning the empathic relations with a given space or place, and trying to find mediated ways to refine the perception of its atmosphere, sublimate its spirit and present it to a broader audience.The starting point is the concept of Genius Loci in ancient Rome, where spaces were believed to be inhabited by a spirit or soul. While this belief and its associated rituals faded away in the West during Christianism, the recent theorization of the Anthropocene, non-human consideration and the ecology of the Living seem to bring back questions about sentience and consciousness, as well as our sensible relationships with living beings, but also places and inanimate objects.1,2,3 In architecture, the second half of the 20th century marked the exploration of the concept of ‘place’, as well as the introduction of phenomenology in the discipline. Progressively, interests moved towards the relationship between individuals and their environments, with a holistic and practical approach.4,5 Today, considering the atmosphere of a place, its ambiance, its character - dare we say its spirit? - has become part of the design process and analysis of a space or territory, via a diversity of tools and methods.6,7 Grandiose architectural projects manipulate ambiance in a perfect orchestration of sensitive details - but a strong atmosphere can also be found in the ordinary, helped with a delicate sensory perception, detailed observation and attentive practice of the space and its built, moving or living components.
The workshop then encourages the students to refine their sensory perception of a given space, and represent its ambiance through various media (drawing, photo, audio...), culminating in a mixed media installation and micro-edition. They are first invited to explore their project site, using a "compass" introduced in class to investigate the different components of its Genius Loci. Particular attention is given to the different layers that shape a place, including historical, technical and psychogeographical dimensions, as well as to the recording of its atmosphere using custom tools and experimental surveying protocols. The students then determine which components to focus on, to create graphical pieces that question points of views, modes of perception, narrative construction, interconnections and the relation to time and emotions.
1. Gaston Bachelard - La poétique de l'espace (1957)
2. Donna Haraway - Staying with the Trouble (2016)
3. David Skrbina - Panpsychism in the West (2017)
4. Aldo Rossi - L’architettura della città (1966)
5. Christian Norberg-Schulz - Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (1979)
6. Nicolas Nova - Investigation / Design (2021) - Nicolas Nova - Exercices d’observation (2022)
7. Soline Nivet - Quand les architectes mènent l'enquête? (2025)
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celestial breaths
cycles & dynamics, temporal cartographies
L2-S2
In the second module, the students learn the fundamentals of 2D CAD drawing, its convention and ways to use it to develop expressive representations. In partnership with the Project course run by Marion Nielsen, they are invited to explore the notions of time, movement and environmental cycles, by creating symbolic and experimental cartographies, temporal diagrams, experiential collages and subjective plan drawings.
The theoretical framework draws on the Daoist understanding of change that permeates Chinese philosophy to explore time, movement and interdependence, introducing a cosmological view of the world as a continuous process of transformation in which architecture is inscribed - and questioning how temporal dynamics and environmental relationships can be perceived, conceived and represented.1,2 The course considers three different scales to which confront architectural and design projects. The short time of immediate experiences, ambiences, materiality and sensations. The medium time of cycles, seasons and calendars, and how they shaped the perception of time and space across different cultures and epochs. And the long time of transformation and history, questioning the becoming to ruins, restaurations and cultural traditions - opening doors for speculative design and prospection. This approach invites to (re)consider various aspects of a project with new perspectives, allowing for deep conceptual rearrangements, practical modifications or representations - from technical tools to abstract diagrams, experimental cartographies and graphical artworks. 3,4,5,6
After a brief introduction to CAD tools and conventions, the students are invited to develop an expressive and experimental cartography of their project which connects the three temporal scales, using various 2D graphic documents, such as plan drawings, sections, axonometries, diagrams, collages or photographies, as well as physical models. A specific importance is given to the exploration of media related to printing techniques available at the school, such as serigraphy, cyanotype, or sublimation, in order to familiarize them with a digital-analog workflow.
1. Cyrille J.-D. Javary - Yin-Yang. La dynamique du monde (2023)
2. Francois Cheng - Vide et plein (1979)
3. Junichiro Tanizaki - Eloge de l’Ombre (1933)
4. Mario Mainetti - Diagrams - A Project by AMO/OMA (2025)
5. Frédérique Aït-Touati, Alexandra Arènes, Axelle Grégoire - Terra Forma (2019)
6. Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby - Speculative Everything (2013)
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common ground
collaboration, collective practices & the commons
L3-S1
The third module proposes an insight into shared spaces, commoning practices and collaborative workflows, to introduce the tools of 3D modelling and rendering. In partnership with the Project course run by Victor Meesters, the students develop their abilities to create and transform simple forms, volumes and assemblies in a collective manner, governance models and resource sharing, before extracting conventional architectural representations.
In the past couple decades, we've witnessed a resurgence of community thinking, as a response to current global challenges. The commons, cooperatives and guilds are shared governance models or structures that have existed through humanity history, but which drew a growing interest from the 1990's, thanks to the development of the Internet and cybernetic thinking.1 Indeed, the history of digital technologies has always been filled with radical social models, such as the open-source and free software movement, offering alternative ways to navigate the multiple layers of a totalizing network infrastructure and the logics of enclosure driven by mega-corporations.2,3 The digital tools available to us have given rise to new models of production and organization, greatly helping counter-cultural models based on cooperation, resource sharing, decentralization and interdependency in the ruins of the capitalism.4,5,6 In architecture, this dynamic can be found both in the processes of the discipline itself, and in the considerations of the spaces it creates.7,8,9 Nowadays, shared space design can be approached in a more systemic and holistic way, questioning a wide range of characteristics such as resources management, governance models, physical thresholds, adaptability, appropriation or intimacy.
The course then seeks to explore the richness and fragility of collaboration, via the collective creation of a shared space and its spatial implications, communicated through traditional architectural representations, as well as atmospheric renderings and collages. After an introduction to collaborative methods and practical advices, the students are invited to develop 3D shapes and models related to their project, which are then regrouped and transformed in collective sessions - using governance roleplay and creative games inspired by various artistic currents, such as the surrealist exquisite corpse, to provide a space for playful exploration under given constraints.
1. Elinor Ostrom - Governing the Commons (1990)
2. Benjamin Bratton - The Stack : On Software and Sovereignty (2016)
3. Geert Lovink - Principles of Stacktivism in triple C Vol 18, No 2 (2020)
4. Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis, and Alex Pazaitis - Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto (2019)
5. Sam Hart, Toby Shorin, Laura Lotti - Squad Wealth (2020)
6. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing - The Mushroom at the End of the World (2015)
7. Stewart Brand- Whole Earth Catalog (1969)
8. P.M. - Bolo’Bolo (1983)
9. Stavros Stavrides - Common Space : The City as Commons (2015)
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hyperlinks
building stories, narrating space
L3-S2
The fourth module offers more autonomy and experimentation, with a focus on the creation and articulation of a narrative by using the wide range of tools they acquired in their Bachelor program. In partnership with the Project course run by Victor Meesters, it introduces the students to narrative design and contemporary digital tools to create a mixed media installation, using experimental representations and rich narratives to build a coherent emotional discourse related to their project.
Stories and narratives have always shaped our understanding and perception of the world around us - from myths and legends to political, historical and even scientific fields. In art, narration has played an obvious role in certain disciplines such as literature or cinema, but writing techniques continuously evolve and transform, influenced by changing cultural and technical contexts. Each new medium has therefore drawn from existing narrative tools, while reshaping our ways of telling stories. More broadly, in the age of pervasive neoliberal capitalism and social networks, everything becomes a narrative, even (and especially) at an individual scale.1 The collapse of the collective discourses that long structured Western societies has encouraged the multiplication of perspectives, political and cultural polarizations, as well as personal micro-narratives.2,3 In architecture, the fictional and speculative approach, popularized during the Renaissance, develop stories to question the present, its societal context and the state of the discipline itself.4 Since the 2010s, we have witnessed a renewed interest in speculative architecture and spatial narratives, taking into account the complexity of the built environment, both through the topics explored and the media employed. 5,6,7
The course then invites students to create a story in the form of a mixed media installation connected to one aspect of their project, such as site analysis, design process, usability projection or speculative thinking. Using a set of narrative design tools introduced in class, they finetune the characters, environments, narratives structures and their associated representations, with great importance given to coherence and immersive strategies to captivate the audience. The format of the final production and the chosen subject are intentionally kept as open as possible, in order to embrace the different interests and individual crafts : texts, videos, drawings, collages, photographs, models, sculptures and sounds are then combined to nurture fictional, documentary or expressive narratives.
1. Adam Curtis - Hypernormalization (2016)
2. Shuman Basar - The Laws of Lorecore (2022)
3. Valentina Tanni - Vibes Lore Core. Esthétique de l'évasion numérique (2025)
4. Superstudio - Twelve Cautionary Tales for Chirstmas (12 Ideal Cities) (1971)
5. Jack Self - Home Economics (2016)
6. Liam Young - Where the City Can’t See (2019)
7. Eyal Weizman - La vérité en ruines : Manifeste pour une architecture forensique (2021)