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galerie philia activates two brutalist landmarks in grand paris for its 10th anniversary show

Design meets brutalism in Galerie Philia’s tenth-anniversary show

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Galerie Philia presents STRATES, a large-scale exhibition staged across two of France’s most emblematic brutalist landmarks: Jacques Kalisz’s Mont d’Est car park and Ricardo Bofill’s Espaces Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand, Grand Paris. On view until November 30th, 2025, the show reflects on a decade of curatorial exploration that has seen the gallery bring contemporary design into conversation with architecture, philosophy, and civic life.

Since its founding in 2015, Galerie Philia has become known for situating contemporary design within charged architectural settings, from Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille to Oscar Niemeyer’s MAC Niterói in Brazil. STRATES continues this approach by transforming Kalisz’s monumental car park into an experimental exhibition space, reinterpreting the raw concrete geometry of the site through design. ‘Our curatorial approach has always been to place contemporary design in dialogue with charged architectural sites rather than neutral white cubes,’ says Philia’s co-founder Ygaël Attali. ‘When we encountered Jacques Kalisz’s Mont d’Est car park, we felt the same shock of recognition: an extraordinary piece of brutalist architecture, at once monumental and fragile, whose latent potential could be reactivated through design.’

all images by studio brinth

STRATES reimagines grand paris’s ruins as living narratives

Originally conceived as a vision of futuristic living on Paris’s periphery, Noisy-le-Grand continues to reflect the remnants of its post-war utopian ideals, lending symbolic weight to Philia’s decision to situate the STRATES exhibition there. ‘Our aesthetic often oscillates between brutalist geometry and wabi-sabi imperfection,’ Attali comments. ‘Noisy-le-Grand embodies this duality in a unique way: Ricardo Bofill’s Espaces Abraxas, just next door, are monumental, almost operatic — a vision of the future as a utopian theater. Jacques Kalisz’s Mont d’Est parking, by contrast, is raw, infrastructural, and today in a visibly fragile state. That fragility makes it even more compelling to us: the cracks, stains, and erosion of the concrete are not defects but traces of time, revealing the human destiny of the structure.’

Far from treating the site as a neutral container, STRATES uses its imperfections as material. ‘For us, beauty lies not only in form but in narrative,’ Attali explains. ‘The Mont d’Est car park offers both: its helicoidal ramps and raw textures are visually powerful, but equally important is the story it tells of collective ambition, decline, and potential rebirth.’ This approach continues the gallery’s long-standing refusal of the white cube model. ‘We do not mute or mutilate the site; we embrace it as part of the proposition itself,’ he adds. ‘In Noisy-le-Grand, this means that the traces of time on Kalisz’s structure are not erased but activated, allowing the works of design to resonate within a larger reflection on modernity, fragility, and continuity.’ Across the street, Bofill’s Abraxas ensemble, still layered with cinematic mythology, forms a counterpoint. ‘It offers a different yet complementary vision — monumental, theatrical, and still inhabited — forming a dialogue across the neighborhood that amplifies the resonance of the exhibition,’ Attali notes.

Galerie Philia presents STRATES, a large-scale exhibition staged across two brutalist landmarks

Site-specific commissions and dialogues with architecture

While the exhibition retraces Philia’s decade-long journey through key works from its roster of artists, several new commissions respond directly to the architecture. ‘Morghen Studio has developed a monumental light installation echoing the spiral geometry of the ramps, transforming circulation into a luminous journey,’ shares Attali. ‘Lucas and Tyra Morten have created seating elements that directly engage with the car park’s structural language. And Milla Vaahtera has designed a lamp that departs from her typically poetic and enchanted vocabulary, embracing instead a colder and more geometric expression.’

STRATES also forms part of a wider civic and cultural shift in Noisy-le-Grand, where the city and local public development company SOCAREN are rethinking how its monumental modernist fabric can evolve. ‘Noisy-le-Grand is emblematic of the late-20th-century ambition to create self-sufficient urban satellites around Paris,’  Attali points out. ‘Today, it is undergoing a process of revaluation: local officials are seeking to revitalise these iconic but underused spaces, making them more accessible to cultural and civic life.’

The exhibition is also rooted in community, involving local residents in its organization and guided visits. ‘We wanted the show not to be parachuted in from outside but truly integrated into the local fabric,’ Philia’s co-founder reflects. ‘In five years, I imagine this neighborhood as a place where architectural heritage is not demolished but reactivated, where the extraordinary vision of architects like Kalisz and Bofill becomes the foundation for new forms of urban vitality.’

Bofill’s Abraxas ensemble is still layered with cinematic mythology

the show reflects on a decade of curatorial exploration

Silver Light by Henry Wilson

transforming Kalisz’s monumental car park into an experimental exhibition

Nautile by Elsa Foulon

Folds by Laura Pasquino

the exhibition is also rooted in community, involving local residents in its organization and guided visits

STRATES also forms part of a wider civic and cultural shift in Noisy-le-Grand

project info:

name: STRATES – Galerie Philia’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition

dates: October 28th – November 30th, 2025

locations: Espaces d’Abraxas & Parking Jacques Kalisz (Mont d’Est), Noisy-le-Grand, Grand Paris, France

curation: Galerie Philia | @galerie.philia (Ygaël and Yaïr Attali)

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in aristides dallas architects’ residence, terraces open like petals toward the aegean horizon

ARISTIDES DALLAS sculpts residence BORN FROM THE EARTH in greece

On the sun-bleached island of Schinousa, Greece, Aristides Dallas Architects crafts Maison Cheval as a residence inseparable from the ground it inhabits. Conceived as a structure drawn out of the land, the project follows the undulating topography of the island with stone walls and sinuous paths that unfurl like ribbons across the hillside. Partially embedded into the terrain, the dwelling reinterprets Cycladic tradition through flowing curves, tactile materials, and a deep sensitivity to the rhythms of light, sea, and soil.

The architects describe the project as emerging from the earth itself, its form guided by the natural contours of the landscape. Dry-stone walls rise and bend in response to the terrain in a sequence of intimate and open spaces. Concave gestures create sheltered living zones reminiscent of the island’s coves, while convex terraces and pools extend outward like petals toward the horizon.

all images courtesy of Aristides Dallas Architects

maison cheval moves with the island’s contours

The name Maison Cheval, French for ‘Horse House’, anchors the project in metaphor as much as material. The Greek architects imagined the residence as a creature of balance and grace, standing composed against the slopes, leaving only the faintest imprint on the earth. This image becomes a guiding principle in this composition as the building aims to move with the contours of the island and dissolve into its light.

Earth-toned materials, soft transitions, and diffused daylight create a calm continuum between architecture and landscape. The curved stone walls and sculpted roofs cast alternating bands of shadow, reflecting the Schinousa’s rhythm of exposure and shelter.

Aristides Dallas Architects crafts Maison Cheval as a residence inseparable from the ground it inhabits

the Greek architects imagined the residence as a creature of balance and grace

conceived as a structure drawn out of the land

unfurling like ribbons across the hillside

the dwelling reinterprets Cycladic tradition through flowing curves

dry-stone walls rise and bend in response to the terrain

a sequence of intimate and open spaces

concave gestures create sheltered living zones reminiscent of the island’s coves

convex terraces and pools extend outward like petals toward the horizon

soft transitions and diffused daylight create a calm continuum between architecture and landscape

project info:

name: Maison Cheval

architect: Aristides Dallas Architects | @aristidesdallasarchitects

location: Schinousa, Greece

The post in aristides dallas architects’ residence, terraces open like petals toward the aegean horizon appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

vipp’s newest lofoten guesthouse is designed like a norwegian fishing cabin on stilts

logg arkiteketer lands in norway

Along the northern coast of Norway, the Lofoten archipelago extends into the sea, looking outward to the peaks, fjords, and inlets shaped by ice and wind. On Storemolla island, Danish design brand Vipp has unveiled its latest guesthouse — a timber structure designed by LOGG ARKITEKTER that perches lightly atop an array of stilts above the shoreline.

Part of the new True North Lofoten Village, the cabin joins a series of contemporary lodgings masterplanned by Snøhetta, where architecture and landscape coexist in deliberate balance. The project gathers a small constellation of buildings by Norwegian studios, creating a community that rethinks how visitors engage with the region’s raw and exposed environment.

images courtesy Vipp

a timber vipp guesthouse on the norwegian coast

The Vipp guesthouse continues a lineage of simple wooden structures that once supported the fishing culture of Lofoten, Norway. For centuries, Storemolla’s skippers anchored their boats beside modest one-story rorbuer cottages raised on stilts above the tide. LOGG ARKITEKTER extends that vernacular logic with a structure that reads as both cabin and boathouse, resting on slender stilts anchored in the rock.

‘The intention was to dissolve the boundary between shelter and seascape,’ explains Diederik Advocaat Clausen of LOGG ARKITEKTER. ‘Each unit is a precise timber structure, designed with minimal expression and a strong directional focus toward the sea.’ The cabin’s weathered wood exterior and sharp geometry make it appear at once transient and in place — an architecture that respects the vastness of its setting.

Vipp opens a new guesthouse by LOGG ARKITEKTER on Norway’s Storemolla island

arctic hospitality in Lofoten

True North Lofoten Village emerged from a shared ambition to create a responsible model of Arctic hospitality. Snøhetta’s Kjetil Trædal Thorsen describes the challenge as one of quiet integration: ‘Working in a place as breathtaking and ecologically sensitive as Lofoten demands a meaningful response. True North Village honors the region’s heritage by engaging in dialogue with the landscape and the local community.’

This measured approach extends to the project’s rhythm of built and unbuilt space. Between each cabin, the terrain remains untouched — moss, stone, and seaweed forming the connective tissue of the village. The architecture, intentionally sparse, acts as an invitation to inhabit the environment rather than frame it.

For Vipp, the Lofoten guesthouse represents the thirteenth entry in its growing portfolio of bookable retreats. ‘Our palette of guesthouses explores different architectural typologies,’ says Kasper Egelund, CEO and third-generation owner. ‘The products remain constant, but the surroundings transform the experience. Lofoten stands as one of the most striking natural settings in the north.’

the project is part of True North Lofoten Village masterplanned by Snøhetta

the timber cabin stands on slender legs above rock formations extending into the sea

LOGG ARKITEKTER shapes the structure as a contemporary interpretation of fishermen cottages

large windows frame uninterrupted views of the shifting Arctic light and sea

project info:

name: Vipp Guesthouse

brand: Vipp | @vipp

cabin architect: LOGG ARKITEKTER | @loggarkitekter

masterplan architect: Snøhetta | @snohetta

location: Lofoten, Norway 

completion: October 2025

photography: © Vipp

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modular delivery truck can expand, shrink or remove its body and wheels to fit any cargo

Expandable modular delivery vehicle by isuzu and UD trucks

Isuzu and UD Trucks bring out the prototype of their modular delivery vehicle that can expand or shrink with its removable body and wheels during the Japan Mobility Show 2025. Dubbed the Vertical Core Cycle Concept, the flexible vehicle, on view at the event between October 30th and November 9th, can connect with different containers or cabins depending on what is being transported, whether it is delivery, logistics, or passengers. 

The highlight of the design is the vertical frame, which allows Isuzu’s modular delivery truck to attach and detach modules in both vertical and horizontal directions. For example, a cargo box can be lifted and replaced with another one, or a passenger cabin can be mounted instead. It is this flexibility that makes it possible for the vehicle to use the same base for multiple purposes during the ride or delivery so there’s no need to use other cars or transport systems. The prototype shown at the event includes several connected units, with the front section working as the driving module and the rear part showing how the wheels with surface panels can be removed or adjusted depending on the size of the cargo to be delivered.

image © designboom

Removable cargo modules on view at japan mobility show 2025

At Japan Mobility Show 2025, visitors can see the front part of Isuzu and UD Trucks’s modular delivery truck can work on its own like a mini car. It holds the cabin with sensors, cameras, and control systems and, potentially, the electric motors that power the wheels and batteries for energy storage. Behind the front unit are cargo modules, which attach to the same vertical frame, and each module has its own wheel set that can move independently. 

This helps balance the load and allows easy connection or removal. The cargo modules are also shaped like boxes with a flat surface, so it is easy for them to hold different-sized goods, equipment, or other payloads. The car manufacturer and vehicle company may use mechanical locking joints and electronic connectors to make the modular connection setup work. So far, Isuzu and UD Trucks have made no announcements on the commercial availability of their modular delivery truck, but at the Japan Mobility Show 2025, the event serves as a platform for them to showcase how future cargo vehicles can have separate, smaller parts to produce a multipurpose ride. 

Isuzu and UD Trucks bring out the prototype of their modular delivery vehicle | image © designboom

the front part can work on its own like a mini car | image © designboom

the cargo modules are adjustable depending on the cargo being shipped | image © designboom

the wheels are connected to flat surfaces that hold the cargo | image © designboom

view of the entire vehicle and system | image courtesy of Isuzu and UD Trucks

project info:

name: Vertical Core Cycle Concept

companies: Isuzu, UD Trucks | @isuzumotors_official, @udtrucksjp

event: Japan Mobility Show 2025 | @jama_jpn

dates: October 30th to November 9th, 2025

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