François Roche


François Roche is a French architect, co-founder of the architecture studio, New-Territories including LabM4, R&Sie, , Mindmachinemakingmyths, among others names.

Biography

He studied in Chalon-sur-Saône, and afterward entered scientific preparatory school in Lyon. He left that school prior to graduating, and enrolled at the school of architecture of Versailles. He graduated from this school in 1988.
In 1993 he co-founded an organization, R&Sie, with architects Stephanie Lavaux and Gilles Desevadavy and New-Territories in 1999 with Francois Perrin. The sub-names have changed several times between 1989 and now: BoyeRoche ; Roche ; Roche & François ; Roche, Francois, Lewis, Huber, Roubaud, Perrin ; Roche, DSV & Sie ; R, DSV & Sie. P ; R & Sie. D/B: L ; R&Sie, adding a new one, titled since 2011. This transformation of his firm name over time serves to illustrate its hybrid character, to destabilize the figure of the architect and appear, according to French critic "iconoclast".
New-Territories is fronted by a transgender avatar and Roche has been secretive about his appearance, refusing to be photographed. This character re-questions the system of domination-submission, as a gender fugitivity. However, in 2011 the avatar suggested to be 'suicided', as a protest against the way architecture is paternalized...but s/he seems still in activism. New-territories closed the office in Paris en 2011 and moved in Asia, Thailand.
Today François Roche is developing at the same time an apparatus of research “new-territories” including several labels, a production structure, via R&Sie to develop and fabricate simultaneously architecture fragments and movies, and 'M4/mindmachinemakingmyths' a robotic fab LAB in Bangkok. He was Visiting Professor at Columbia-Gsapp, New York City, 2006–13, leading one of the "advanced studio". He has been a Visiting Professor at RMIT, Upenn, Michigan, among other places. He is a faculty member of EGS, Philosophy, Art & Critical Thought.
From 1991 to 1994, François Roche took an active part in the newspaper Purple Prose, as an associate writer, and left when it became, according to him, a 'pornchic Calvin Klein' review. A rebound of the Liberation newspaper entitled “the city died” in 1994 will come to enclose this period., followed by 15 years dedicated to digital-computation research in Bio-politic, but architecture .
In 1993 the French Institute of Architecture offered him the possibility of unfolding the whole of its first experiments under the title “Action, March 93” which would give an account of twenty of his projects. A monographic work was to be published, now sold out “The shade of the chameleon”.
The name R&Sie is resulting from the contraction of the group, but it also refers to RSI, the event "Real, Symbolic, Imaginary" of Jacques Lacan in 1972. The pronunciation “heresy” which seems completely fortuitous, launched by Bruce Sterling via its Wired review in 2006, finishes by him sticking to the skin.
New-Territories has been invited in multiple sessions of Biennial of Architecture of Venice, in 1991, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014, both in French pavilion and international selection. Their works have been visible at the First Biennial of Architecture of Chicago, 2015, followed by Biennials of Istanbul in 2015, of Venice, at Bembo Pavilion in 2018, and Triennial of Echigo Tsumari in 2018.
Their Architecture experiments and works are part of the Permanent Collection of SF-MOMA, Pompidou Center, CCA Montreal, FRAC Orleans, Mudam, TBA21, Towada Art Center, AIC Chicago, among others... and majors exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Echigo Tsumari, Kanazawa, Bangkok, Singapore, Los Angeles, Basel, Vienna, Orleans, Venice, Humlebæk, Luxembourg, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Reunion Island, Berlin,...among other places.
This architect has been associated:
François Roche is the guest editor of LOG#25, NY Critic Revue, issue released in July 2012 / title Reclaim Resistance.
A large retrospective opened in Nov. 2016, in France, at the FRAC, Art Center of experimental and radical Architecture, Orleans, titled "S/He would rather do FICTION MAKer" with the Avatar as master of ceremony.

Monographs

All monographies/ texts / article free downloadable
His works are organized on five sets of apparatuses / 1° Research as Speculation, 2° Fiction as Practice, 3° Practice as Lifespan, 4° Daily Routine as mythomaniaS, 5° Bachelor Machines