Open Call - Festival des Architectures Vives 2025

To mark the 19th edition of the Festival des Architectures Vives, from June 10-15, 2025, the Champ Libre association is inviting applications for 10 projects to be carried out as part of the Festival.

The FAV will take place in the heart of the city of Montpellier, in the Ecusson district and, more specifically, in the inner courtyards of certain private mansions, offering visitors a journey of architectural discovery.

The aim of FAV Montpellier is, on the one hand, to open up these emblematic sites to visitors for the duration of the festival and, on the other, to reveal an intimate relationship between contemporary architecture, an installation, and a heritage site, thanks to the intervention of teams of architects who will present a work specific to each site.

Theme 2025: La Gourmandise

For this new edition, we're inviting architects, urban planners, and landscape architects to explore the link between Architecture and Gourmandise by taking over the courtyards of Montpellier's private mansions once again this year, with installations that offer a special kind of experimentation and provoke genuine moments of pleasure.

Gourmandise, usually associated with pleasures of the taste buds, is revealed here in an architectural dimension where materials, shapes, and spaces are transformed into a veritable celebration of desire. Far from being a mere sin, gourmandise becomes a vector for creativity and innovation, a pretext for exploring how spaces can arouse an irresistible desire to be lived and experienced. The courtyards of private mansions are already evocative of this, and the installations will sublimate this intense moment.

Gourmandise embodies voluptuousness and pleasure, but also curiosity and sensory exploration. In architecture, it translates into immersive spatial experiences where every detail is designed to arouse curiosity and the desire to discover. Just as contemporary cuisine explores new flavors, textures, and sensations, sometimes to the point of molecular study, gourmet architecture invites bold experimentation. Molecular cuisine redefines the boundaries of taste by reinventing traditional techniques to create unprecedented sensory experiences. In the same way, architecture can seize upon this quest for innovation and discovery to design spaces where materiality, light, and proportions are reinterpreted, transforming the space into a veritable laboratory for sensory experimentation.

For this edition, we invite you to revisit the codes of architecture through the prism of gourmet delights. How can architecture become an invitation to delectation? The proposed installations will have to play with perceptions and invite visitors to an immersive experience. The challenge is to design installations that awaken the desire to be explored, tasted with the eye, and savored with the mind. The exploration of La Gourmandise offers a space to push back the boundaries of architecture. We want it to be a moment of pleasure for visitors, for the inhabitants, and for the owners of the site, but also for you as a designer.

Together, let's make this 2025 edition of the Festival des Architectures Vives a celebration where the pleasure of the eyes and senses rivals that of the taste buds.

Selection process:

The consultation is open to young architects and landscape architects. The aim is to promote young architectural creation. It is possible to form a multidisciplinary team, but it must comprise at least one architect.

Applicants must use this form, and applications must be sent as a single PDF file not exceeding 10MB. Failure to adhere to those requirements will result in a rejection of the application.

To apply, go to: https://festivaldesarchitecturesvives.com/