In the range of possibilities in architecture for the symbiosis
between culture and nature, the approach made by the particular form of
biomimicry - masquerade - is a remarkable one.
Instead of creating buildings as a system technically integrated with
local natural circumstances the masquerade rather uses camouflage to create
a conjunction of buildings and their surrounding landscape, fusing the
two at a more formal level. In its smartness it is on the opposite side
from all careful and elaborated energy conscious designs: it just shelters
in nature.
 Extension of a school in Thiais-Paris |
Design for a water purification plant. The image of plants is printed on the glass. |
 Rental homes in Jupilles |
The young architectural practice of the architects Édouard François and Duncan Lewis has developed a reputation for this kind of work in sensitive environmental areas.
In the village of Jupilles, south of Le Mans, they designed a small community of rental homes for all-year round use. To avoid turning the community into a housing estate each set of two houses is designed as a box concealed behind a hedge - hiding them in nature. In a few years the hedge will completely cover the houses.
In an earlier design François and Lewis were asked by one of the private French motorway companies to make a design for a link proposed between the Paris’ proposed outer motorway road and the existing autoroute network. A normal viaduct was not desired as connection passes over an ecologically sensitive area. The solution offered by François and Lewis was to wrap a viaduct in a concrete tube clad with brass grilles, thus suggesting from a distance the outline of a line of trees. Together with the trunk-like columns it would make the viaduct hard to spot in the landscape.
A similar solution was chosen for the extension of a school in Thiais-Paris (constructed 1996) where a row of classrooms was lifted from the ground and wrapped in zone of trees. It makes the extension to some kind of giant tree-house; what could the kids like more?
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