BIENNIAL PROJECT
Air Houses: Design for a New Climate
Francois Perrin’s project, titled Air Houses: Design for a New Climate, is set within the majestic Palm House at the Garfield Park Conservatory, whose tropical microclimate provides an ideal setting for an architectural experiment that proposes new directions for building in relationship to landscape and climate. Perrin puts forth an alternative to a culture of mass consumerism that has produced buildings disengaged from their context (at ever greater environmental cost). Air Houses: Design for a New Climate looks back to look forward, and references the vernacular traditions that have developed in response to nature throughout most of human history. The silver fabric structure suspended above the Palm House canopy prototypes a futuristic interpretation of these first principles that have driven myriad chapters of architecture’s performative response to weather and climate.
BIO
Francois Perrin lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Paris, France, where he earned his professional degree in Architecture. He has completed several residential, commercial and exhibition designs. Concerned with site specificity, his work is always unique to the immediate environmental context and addresses issues of local and sustainable systems. His projects have been featured in Artforum, Domus, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wallpaper, Sunset, Dwell, and The Architect's Newspaper. In addition to his work as a designer, he is also an educator and curator. He has organized several exhibitions including "Dialogues" and "Yves Klein-Air Architecture" at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and "Architectones" in several locations. Perrin has taught at UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Cal Poly Pomona, Woodbury University, and Sci-Arc and has lectured on his work internationally including the Jan Van Eyck Akademie, MAK Vienna, Columbia University, USC, UCLA, Universite de Montreal and Ecole Speciale d'Architecture.
