Research Seminar

26 January 2023, 17.00, at the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome and on ZOOM – LINK

Vincent Dumay
”Anatomy of ruins”

The art of building is a field that has evolved with changes in use and means available to builders. If the history of architecture is witness to this progressive evolution, a new predominant paradigm has to be integrated into architectural design: climate change, the finiteness of resources and the loss of biodiversity.
Earthen architecture is one of the first solutions used by men to shape their environment. Its use has been gradually abandoned in favour to more modern techniques. We are recently facing that the production of industrial building materials is largely responsible for global warming. Earthen construction has therefore recently become a credible alternative, which must be reinvented and modernized.
This non-academic seminar presents the journey, the creative process, and the work in residence of an architect. It presents how the observation of ruins can be a source of inspiration for anyone interested in construction. The Roman knowledge into building, by combining a wide variety of building techniques can enrich the reflection on current earth construction.

Vincent Dumay graduated in 2015 from East-Paris Architecture School. He collaborates with several architectural offices in Stockholm and he managed the renovation and conversion of a Gothic revival church in the historic centre of Stockholm.
At the same time, Dumay initiated a series of collective projects, taking the form of meditative landscapes that combine architecture and nature. Materials and building techniques are central in his practice. In 2021, in collaboration with Baptiste Wullschleger and Aron Fidjeland, Dumay designed and created a garden for the Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden festival. The proposal combines a rammed earth wall with tall grasses. After this first decisive contact with ecological construction, Dumay decided to deepen his technical knowledge, working as a mason with Martin Rauch in Austria during the summer of 2022. During this autumn he is a fellow of the Swedish Institute in Rome in order to carry out research about the poetic potential of ruins and the beauty of the broken geometry.