Poissy Galore

Poissy Galore
AWP + HHF

Author: Alessandra Cianchetta, Simon Frommenwiler

23 x 15 cm | 6 x 9 in
91 colour and b/w ills | 80 pages
Paperback

Available in the UK January 2018

Not far from Le Corbusier's famed Villa Savoye lies Poissy Galore: a visionary project that brings together architecture, education and leisure within a phenomenal arena of natural beauty along the Seine in Carrieres-sous-Poissy. Designed collaboratively by French architects AWP and Swiss HHF, this inspiring cluster of pavilions, public infrastructures, exhibition spaces and event halls fans out across 113 acres of green space, offering Parisians a restorative retreat away from the city and a green haven for locals alike.

This elegant booklet publication celebrates the grand debut of Poissy Galore in the autumn of 2016. With stunning landscapes captured by Julien Lanoo and acclaimed architectural photographer Iwan Baar, the sublime aura of Poissy's natural beauty is artfully explored throughout the 80-page publication. Interviews with the principals of AWP and HHF expound upon the design concept, which features a hybridisation of natural and built landscapes that characterise the site of the project.

Critical essays by leading voices in contemporary art and culture provide an interdisciplinary context for Poissy Galore that underscores the project's rich contribution to topics of ecology, environmentalism and the Anthropocene.

In addition to public infrastructure such as the museum, which houses insects both living and conserved, the project features non-public areas including sites purposed for cultivating different kind of insects, so as to develop a self-sustaining exhibition of local ecologies. The built landscape offers an exciting spectrum of material engagement, including an observatory made of steel and a modular wood system from which spring the follies both low-cost and organic, the variety of scale and design delights the eye as well as enabling the integration of local builders and suppliers.