Orléans Launches Its First Architecture Biennial with 45 Architects

The first edition of the Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans opens on October 13, 2017, running until April 1, 2018, across eight city venues and four locations in the Loire Valley. Organized by the Frac Centre-Val de Loire, the event replaces the ArchiLab program after eight editions. Titled "Marcher dans le rêve d’un autre" (Walking in Another's Dream), the biennial is co-curated by Luca Galofaro and Frac Centre director Abdelkader Damani. It features works from the Frac's collection alongside projects by 45 invited architects, including José Miguel de Prada Poole, Minimaforms, Haus-Rucker-Co, Guy Rottier, and Patrick Bouchain. The exhibition is conceived as an "atlas" inspired by Georges Didi-Huberman, emphasizing relationships between images rather than individual works. Two monographic shows focus on Rottier and Bouchain. The biennial aims to present architecture not as finished objects but as the beginning of a process, rejecting the digital homogeneity of recent ArchiLab editions. Six international symposia are planned, and two catalogues will be published—one at the opening and one at the close. The event positions the Frac Centre as a production hub and a reference for innovation in architectural culture.