Une histoire de lignes

" 1992. ALTA signs its very first swimming pool for the commune of Cesson-Sévigné, while the inter-communal swimming pool of Guenrouët has just been delivered at the end of 2022. Thirty years of architectural practice in the field of aquatic facilities and a desire to linger for a moment over this work, to take a step back and take the time to analyse. How has this production evolved over time? What can it tell us about the practice of an agency, its know-how, a certain 'trademark'? In short, how does time traverse architecture? A freeze frame allows us to freeze things and contemplate them: a look back to take the time to reflect and move forward.

So begins Une histoire de lignes - 1992/2022, a retrospective work documenting 30 years of construction practice in the field of aquatic facilities. Photographer Gaëtan Chevrier was given carte blanche to create a free path through these facilities: "I suggested to Maxime and Gwénaël that they map all the swimming pool buildings with film, suggesting a formal filiation with my personal work, a rereading of the inventory project.

Karine Guilbert, a specialist in architectural photography, collected and analysed the photographer's views on his relationship to architecture and landscape in general, and on the way he approached this commissioned work in particular. An interview with ALTA's associate architects completes this statement by giving the commissioners the floor: "Our predecessors Jean-Luc Le Trionnaire and Alain Tassot, the founding fathers of the agency, had become referents in the Grand Ouest region, at a time when a new policy was proposing that architects develop innovative types of swimming pools, playful complexes welcoming all generations. We are rehabilitating several of these buildings and the retrospective inventory is conducive to analysis, to the exploration of a legacy practice. We are looking for the right distance to show possible links, the common factors between our two generations.

UNE HISTOIRE DE LIGNES, 1992-2022
ALTA RÉTROSPECTIVE

Texts : Eléonore Maisonabe, Karine Guilbert
Photographs : Gaëtan Chevrier
Graphic design : Wearblow
Printing : Media Graphic
110 Pages
January 2023