"人 (Person)",  an installation that creates rhythm, appears at the Vives Architecture Festival 2024

The Vives Architecture Festival, held in Montpellier, France since 2006, is known for transforming Montpellier's architectural treasure trove of historic private residences with contemporary architectural installations, offering the public an immersive form of exploration. This year's festival was held from June 11-16, 2024, under the theme of "Rhythm," and Alvaro Gonzalez Serrano & Jennifer Alvarado Figueroa presented their installation "人 (Person)" as a creative body of art and beauty, the origin of movement and rhythm.

Photo credit: ©photoarchitecture.com

Photo credit: ©photoarchitecture.com

Photo credit: ©photoarchitecture.com

The object became a facade that created a rhythm within the courtyard, transforming the area into a stage, and the movements and interactions of the people surrounding the courtyard became the performance itself.

Photo credit: Álvaro González Serrano

Photo credit: Álvaro González Serrano

Photo credit: Álvaro González Serrano

The luminous facade invites passersby to step into the previously alien space, and leads them across the red carpet to the center of the action. Through supple, rhythmic patterns that reflect the surrounding environment, the approach to context is staged, transforming the patio into a stage. Visitors enjoyed performing there, dancing, and taking pictures from various angles. Pieces of light moving with the wind, like scales that might belong to a living animal, created various visual effects on the objects and what was projected. They project the background, highlight history, and create a performative space.

Photo credit: Álvaro González Serrano

Photo credit: ©photoarchitecture.com

Photo credit: ©photoarchitecture.com

This project was done entirely with digital manufacturing techniques and assembled by hand. The structure is an opportunity to consider how real technology can be used to produce architecture in ways that were previously impossible: new shapes, new materials, infinite configurations, and optimization of available resources to reduce CO2 emissions. The object "Person" is composed of 572 moving acrylic pieces that are laser cut with a mirror finish. These pieces are joined to a wooden main structure in the shape of a eucalyptus CNC using 572 pieces 3D printed in recycled PLA to allow them to move freely under the influence of wind. These pieces were fabricated at the facilities of the European University of Madrid, the main sponsor of the project.

González Serrano Studio+ & J-AF Architecture

The team arises from the collaboration of two young architects, Álvaro González Serrano (González Serrano Studio+, Madrid, Spain) and Jennyfher Alvarado Figueroa (J-AF Architecture, Pamplona, Spain). Both work from a sustainable approach, through ecosystemically subtle interventions, but with a great visual, evocative, direct, and functional impact, and implementing traditional construction knowledge with new digital manufacturing technologies.