On May 7, 2025, the third edition of the Île-de-France Architecture and Landscape Biennial (Bap! 2025), France’s most important architecture event, was inaugurated in Versailles. This edition features the joint curatorship of Sana Frini, from the Mexican firm LOCUS, and Philippe Rahm, from the French firm PHILIPPE RAHM ARCHITECTES.

Two experimental pavilions are installed in the Cour de la Maréchalerie, serving as a visual and experiential introduction to the Biennial.

“Windcatcher” proposes the levitation of six solar chimneys that cool the space using a passive convection system, taking advantage of Versailles’ high summer temperatures and natural air currents. These chimneys provide cooling through their geometric and material design: they capture solar energy via a glass surface at the top, which heats interior walls made of black-painted clay. This thermal differential, combined with perimeter openings, activates a convective flow that drives cool air currents at the lower part of the pavilion—where visitors walk and rest.

“For the past two millennia, earthed dolia have been used in climate zones between 35ºN and 40ºN latitudes to regulate temperature for sensitive contents—wine, pickles, and human burials. The combined thermal inertia of clay and accumulated soil, the evaporative cooling enabled by the ceramic’s porous structure, and the shading effect work together to stabilize the temperature of the contained earth while absorbing energy from bodies, objects, or fluids placed inside through direct radiation.

The exhibition begins with a sensory experience for visitors: the heat of Versailles under a +4°C climate in the year 2100. Entry is through the space between the Nef Centrale and the Gypsothèque, where a room lined entirely with low-emissivity golden curtains reflects the warmth from an infrared chandelier. Projected on both sides of these curtains are two films created by artists from the northern and southern Mediterranean, engaging in a dialogue about climate warming and its consequences on the geographic and cultural shifts from south to north.

The central nave houses the main exhibition, laid out in three longitudinal sections that represent three temporal moments in relation to geography: past, present, and future. The exhibition is structured transversely around four symbolic elements—water, earth, air, and fire—used to group architectural problems and solutions in response to tropical rains, floods, droughts, evaporative cooling, thermal inertia, effusivity, thermal conductivity, ventilation, thermal convection, radiant solar heat, solar protection, and more.

This section features works by contemporary architects already practicing in warm climates. Through drawings, models, and prototypes, they share how they currently address thermal environments in their architectural work.Set along the north wall of the Nef Centrale, this section presents a visionary image. The theme is Paris and the region of Île-de-France in the year 2100—or more broadly, northern cities that have been transformed by warm climate conditions.

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