The Building with Composites for Architecture research is directly motivated by the issues
raised during our architectural practice. The research is dedicated to the use of polymer matrix
composites as bearing structure or bearing structural envelopes for architectural construction.
Within that context, it aims at capitalizing, pooling and developing knowledge and
approaches for architecture on the structural use of these materials through an architectural,
historical and prospective study. A colloquia cycle articulates from the research.
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Colloquia Cycle
Completed step one: historical research
This study aims at drawing an historical landscape of structural use of composites materials
for architecture, from the origins to our times, from a technical, political and economical,
conceptual and trade standpoint, based on a threefold axis:
conception (design), production, reception (semiology, symbolic and cultural aspects).
The corpus thus far established is composed of 320 worldwide experimental applications,
developed from 1940 to 1985.