TC Cuadernos 161: LAN Architecture

LAN (Local Architecture Network). Architecture 2010- 2023

The Parisian studio LAN, led by Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano, has managed to consolidate its unique voice in the European architectural landscape in just over two decades.

This issue, with its 322 pages full of graphic information, allows one to appreciate the evolution and maturation of their architectural language over the last decade. Each project is presented as a case study, a detailed analysis of the how and why, with photographs, drawings, and constructive details. It also includes texts from Manuel Orazi, Emanuele Coccia, and Andrea Zanderigo that help contextualize LAN’s work and architectural discourse.

As we move further into the 21st century, architecture faces changing challenges, mediating between tradition and innovation, identity, and globalization. In this context, LAN shows us with this monograph how historical sensitivity can merge with contemporary demands.

Their architecture invites us to reconsider the adaptability potential of the European city. Their proposals advocate for this “urban resilience” that allows for the constant metamorphosis of the built fabric. Their fluid spaces subvert functional conventions to adapt to future needs.

Initially influenced by Nouvel’s abstraction, LAN refined its own language, straddling between modernity and tradition. Buildings like the residences on Rue de Saussure evoke Haussmannian Paris, incorporating modern technological solutions. Other projects reinterpret canonical typologies from the past with new uses, from prisons inspired by nurseries to theaters conceived as factories.

The result is seemingly simple works but filled with historical echoes. Buildings that seem to have always been there, yet designed to anticipate their future metamorphoses.

This volume ultimately allows one to appreciate the conceptual solidity behind LAN’s formal elegance, the silent yet powerful testimony of an architectural practice that understands its role in an ever-changing world. An essential monograph to understand one of the most unique voices in the current landscape.