“L’eau source d’architecture” (water source of architecture) is the evocative title of an exhibition for the Fondation Electricité de France curated by architect and journalist Pascale Blin together with Francis Rambert, director of IFA/Cité de l’Architecture.

Showing at Toulouse from 18 November to 4 February, the exhibition has six main themes: the conquering and reconquering of dry land, celebration of place, symbiosis with the landscape, intimacy, water as a mirror, and crossing water. As testimony to the extraordinary creative energy of water, a photographic journey gathers around 100 modern and contemporary architectural projects realised all over the world, demonstrating how the liquid element has never ceased to fascinate architects.

Villa Malaparte designed by Adalberto Libera at Capri, the Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon, Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Dhaka Parliament by Louis Kahn perhaps mark the triumph of the relationship between architecture and water. Experiments also continue into recent years, two examples being young Norwegians Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen, who designed the spectacular viewing point onto the fjords of Norway’s southwest coast, and American artist Vito Acconci who at Graz on the river Mur designed a bridge/artificial island which holds a cafe, amphitheatre and entertainment area. E.S.

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