Metavilla

French pavilion - 10th Venice Architecture Biennale 2006 - EXYZT

How can we expose architectural projects during an event such as the Venice Architecture Biennale lively? Patrick Bouchain, the curator of the French pavilion proposed EXYZT the collaboration to bring up architecture in an alternative way.  

The Metavilla consisted in the act of transforming the classical French exhibition pavilion into a space full of life, generosity and freedom. What is the essence of the act of architecture but that of offering spaces ready to be experienced and appropriated, ready to welcome the stranger?

“Met ta vie là”, more than being just an alternative way of «exhibiting» architecture, during the three month of Biennale, the Metavilla presented an ordinary daily life including moments of sleep, washing, work, eating and rest. The public space of the exhibition became the home. The visitors have been welcomed to participate in the daily life of the Metavilla: they could take a sunbath on the chaises longues, grab a drink or share a meal, go to the sauna. Construction and inhabitation started four weeks before the opening. Exyzt delivered Metavilla for the inauguration of the Biennale and in the following weeks different groups inhabited the house and proposed workshops while living the space. It’s the appropriation by each group and even by each individual who passed through, which created the diversity and richness of the Metavilla.