Block Architectes: Veg.itect

We featured the rust/green complement in the Caixa Forum building, now to shift gears to another wonderful complementary palatte - concrete and greenery. Life Without Buildings featured work of French architecture firm Block Architectes - and while not all of it is using this dual material scheme exclusively it is all pretty integrated - with enough greenery to garner the title of Veg.itect. It's mostly paper architecture (or should I say digital?) at this point, but heck, so is 85.3% of Vegetated Architecture so far. Just enjoy what might be.

:: image via Life Without Buildings

And a quick visit to their site yielded some more tasty shots, such as this parking screen scenario:

:: image via Block Architects.

And a vegetated wall for an urban park development in St. Georges (top), and a rooftop vegetated youth hostel in Morlaix (below):





:: images via Block Architects

And finally just a trace of vegetation on the Ghost Bunker... but nice juxtaposition of materials and what looks like an actual structure!


:: image via Block Architects

There isn't a ton of text or description on the website, but they do have a PDF book to check out. Also a short bio, from the site:

"Block, which was set up in Nantes in 2000, comes across as a group with its sights determinedly set an experimentation. This said, they had already worked together on many projects since their thoroughly illegal occupation of a Second World War bunker in 1996 -- Blockhaus DYI0. Their praxis is intentionally cross-disciplinary, involving sound recycling, installations, performances and architectural projects. The overall dynamic underpinning their line of thinking veers towards the notion of shift and displacement, and the decon-textualization of one or more ingredients of the real, duly turning into a project and indexed forms. Block was a Nouveaux Albums de la Jeune Architecture 2002 award-winner."

If my French was better, I may actually get something out of it. Either way, images need little translation... from the PDF book:






:: images via Block Architects