As I take up my post as Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville, I am aware of the challenge we face in building a collective project around teaching and research in architecture, with the entire student, teaching and administrative communities.
Training future architects is a major responsibility, given the crucial issues at stake. Our resources are dwindling, biodiversity is endangered and soil quality is under threat. New urban and architectural approaches need to be taught to better plan and build our living spaces. This is why architecture schools are the most important and fundamental places in which to learn what needs to be done to meet these challenges.
The arrival of new management, alongside our governing bodies, is always a special moment. It’s an opportunity to kick-start a new cycle at the school, drawing on its resources and its highly committed communities.
Our school’s heritage is our strength. Our international outlook is our ally. We need to draw on what makes us who we are to build a strategy for the future. ENSA-PB has always been a vibrant place, with its roots firmly planted in today’s world. The uniqueness of our establishment lies in its ability to take a trandisciplinary interest in “inhabiting” on all scales, from housing to territory, while remaining perpetually engaged in contemporary issues.
I’d like to end this editorial with a word to our students. You are the source of all our commitment. We have a responsibility to help you build our collective future, our world of tomorrow. Be curious about everything, make your own commitments, learn to constantly question the world, astonish us! Immerse yourself in everything the school has to offer: lectures, exhibitions, research, visits, workshops, the media library and documentation center… Never be afraid to learn too much throughout your life.
I wish you all a wonderful academic year at Paris Belleville.
Christine Leconte, director