Reframe Installation, for the Festival of Living Architecture in Montpellier, France, dutch architect Paul Scales and French architecture and design studio Atelier Lit created the Reframe installation, which is the quintessential element of the festival’s theme – Surprise. The Festival consists in a tour through the old city center, where there is a mix of historic buildings and modern architecture. The installation is a simple cube that “gradually reveals multiple framed viewpoints”, creating its own fake visual tour.
© Pierre Berthelomeau
It plays with the relation with the way in which we experience space and the common shape of the cube. Creating a game between refraction, reflection and reframing, between observing and being observed, and from being the controller of the environment and controlling it. Reframe is a simple algorithmic installation that manages to prove that the most basic concepts can be the most interesting. For the construction, the team used a simple structure of 45 opal-colored polycarbonate sheets, and 16 steel plumbing pipes.
Project info:
Architects: Paul Scales, Atelier Kit
Country: France, Montpellier
Year: 2012
Photographs: Pierre Berthelomeau
Lidia Ratoi is a Romanian architect, educator, and researcher, currently serving as Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture. With a background in both architectural design and theory, her work explores the intersections of technology, media, and politics in the built environment. Ratoi’s research focuses on the aesthetics of power, surveillance, and virtuality, with a strong interest in critical and speculative design. She has practiced internationally and exhibited in venues across Europe and Asia. Passionate about challenging conventional narratives, Ratoi integrates digital tools with philosophical inquiry, encouraging experimental approaches to architecture. Her contributions continue to shape emerging discourses in design and architectural pedagogy.