Les Voix de la Vallée

Philippe Rahm and Frédérique Lecomte

How can we consider the city as a forest? Networks, interdependencies, and resilience

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About the night class

As part of the exhibition The Valley by Fabrice Hyber, the Fondation Cartier invites architect Philippe Rahm, and forestry expert and director of the forestry action alliance ONF-Agir pour la forêt, Frédérique Lecomte to participate in the Voices of the Valley evening series. Within the exhibition spaces, the two guest speakers discuss the hypotheses proposed by Fabrice Hyber in his paintings before a live audience.

Over the course of this evening, they will combine their fields of research and expertise to imagine buildings as trees and cities as forests. Referring to Hyber’s works Réinvention de la forêt, L’Arbre rouge, and Roots friendly, Philippe Rahm and Frédérique Lecomte ask the question: “How can we consider the city as a forest?” and explore concepts like networks, interdependencies, and resilience…

This live discussion will be broadcast simultaneously on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, and in the form of podcasts via the main platforms.


With the participation of:

  • Picture © Michel Legendre - CCA Montreal.
    Philippe Rahm

    Philippe Rahm is a Swiss architect who graduated from the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne. He founded his architecture agency, Philippe Rahm architectes, in Paris in 2008. His work, which brings the field of architecture towards the physiological and meteorological spheres, has acquired an international audience within today’s context of sustainable development. He is the recipient of international competitions and projects that have provided him with the opportunity to imagine the (re)development of different urban places around the world, and he has participated in several Architecture Biennials, including Venice, Seoul, and Chicago. In 2007, a solo exhibition was devoted to him at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal. Philippe Rahm was a resident of the Villa Medici in Rome in 2000, and he has given numerous conferences on his work, notably at Yale, the Beijing Forum, ETH Zurich, and UCLA. He has been a guest professor in many prestigious architecture schools across Europe and the United States and is a senior lecturer at the École Nationale d’Architecture in Versailles. He is also the author of the following books: Écrits climatiques and Météorologie des sentiments.

  • Picture © D.R.
    Frédérique Lecomte

    Frédérique Lecomte is a forest engineer and holds a DEA in environmental history and natural phenomena. After several years at the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, she found her vocation as a forester in her desire to transmit a healthy forest to future generations. She joined the General Direction of the ONF (National Forests Office) in 1995. She is particularly interested in the relationship between forests and society, contributes to the definition of the policy for welcoming the public in forests and explores knowledge of social demand facing the forest. She then joined the field in Alsace and participated in the multifunctional and sustainable management of public forests. From 2007, she ran an engineering office which offered the skills of ONF experts to support local players in several areas: water, trees in the city, environmental studies, landscape and reception of the public in a natural environment. In 2019, she joined the General Direction to create the ONF-Agir pour la forêt fund which she manages and of which Fabrice Hyber is the ambassador.


Practical information

Additional information

Estimated duration: 1 hour.
Discussions in French.
Free seating within the limit of available spaces.
Access to the classroom where the evening class is held upon presentation of the exhibition ticket.
This ticket includes access to the evening class on the date chosen when booking, as well as entry to the exhibition that same day from 5pm.
The evening classes are broadcast live on the websites of the Fondation Cartier and *Duuu Radio, before being made available in the form of podcasts.
Latecomers will not be allowed access to the event so as not to disturb the speakers or interfere with the audio recording. We thank the audience in advance for their punctuality.

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