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France\u2019s<\/strong><\/a> La Grande Motte reveals itself at the break of day, when most seaside resorts<\/strong><\/a> lie dormant or disheveled, to Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental as a mirage made permanent. Through their photographic series<\/strong><\/a> La Cit\u00e9 Oasis, the two artists approach the French coastal city as a memory trace, a strangely familiar dream sculpted in concrete<\/strong><\/a>, palms, and Mediterranean haze. While their journey began in nearby Arles, home to the celebrated Rencontres de la Photographie festival, it was in La Grande Motte that they found a city so steeped in symbols it felt closer to fiction than place. \u2018During our first visit, we were immediately charmed by the unique allure of this city. Its spectacular architecture seemed to transport us to a sci-fi setting,\u2019 <\/em>share the photographers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Le Pos\u00e9idon \u2013 Le Couchant de La Grande Motte \u2013 2019 Architect \u2013 Jean Balladur \u00a9 Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n La Grande Motte, a seaside resort in southern France, was built during the economic boom that followed World War II, an era known in France as Les Trente Glorieuses (the Glorious Thirty). In the 1960s, the French government launched an ambitious plan called Mission Racine to develop the Mediterranean coast of the country, a strategic move to encourage French people to holiday at home instead of heading to Spain.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Mies van der Rohe-trained architect and urban planner Jean Balladur was given the task of designing La Grande Motte from the ground up. His vision was to create a modern paradise by the sea, inspired by everything from Mayan pyramids and Brutalist architecture to the optimistic spirit of modernism. Balladur imagined a city filled with striking geometric buildings, wrapped in lush greenery. \u2018Jean Balladur envisioned \u201crebuilding a paradise, overrun by greenery,\u201d\u2018<\/em> note Paris-based photographers Charly Broyez<\/a> and Laurent Kronental<\/a>.<\/strong> The result is a combination of pyramids, loggias, portholes, bishop\u2019s hats, and flowing concrete forms.<\/p>\n Le Temple du Soleil & Les Voiles Blanches \u2013 Le Couchant de La Grande Motte \u2013 2020 Architect \u2013 Jean Balladur \u00a9 Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The artists return to the site repeatedly over four years, documenting its seasons and subtleties with a large-format 4\u00d75\u2033 film camera. \u2018Working with large-format film encourages us to anticipate the construction of our images like paintings,\u2019<\/em> they comment.<\/strong> Their analog approach becomes a form of attunement \u2013 to light, atmosphere, and local rhythms. \u2018The film camera is a wonderful tool that demands rigor and patience. It compels us to slow down, make choices, and contemplate,\u2019 <\/em>the photographers add.<\/strong>\u00a0 In their dreamlike series, Balladur\u2019s modernist geometry seems to soften under Mediterranean haze, and architecture reveals its lyrical potential.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the bold silhouettes of concrete structures, La Cit\u00e9 Oasis draws attention to the ecological foresight of the project. \u2018La Grande Motte is a true Oasis City, where immersion in nature and the well-being of its inhabitants are at the heart of its urban philosophy,\u2019 <\/em>Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Since it was first developed, more than 50,000 trees have been planted, and nearly 70% of the city is now covered in greenery. Intertwining nature and the built environment, with buildings nestled among trees, arranged in layers, and sheltered from coastal winds, was ahead of its time. In many ways, it predicted the sustainable design ideas that cities around the world are only now beginning to adopt. \u2018Jean Balladur said, \u201dI attempted to compensate for this lack and to substitute symbolic backdrops for historical deficits\u2026 The walker or resident then plays hide-and-seek with the mythical underpinnings hidden within,\u201d\u2018 <\/em>reflect the photographer duo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The photographers see in Balladur\u2019s city a living utopia, inhabited, symbolic, and evolving. For Kronental, who previously explored the poetic decay of postwar housing estates in the Parisian banlieues, La Grande Motte offers a different kind of promise: \u2018Photographing the seaside resort of La Grande Motte came naturally as a logical continuation of my work on dreamed cities, realized and inhabited utopias,\u2019 <\/em>he recalls.<\/strong> For Broyez, whose earlier series explored abandoned structures overtaken by nature, the garden city becomes a site of symbiosis. \u2018The geometric forms of the buildings, inspired by both nature and ancient civilizations, integrate into this garden city\u2026 giving the city the appearance of an oasis,\u2019 <\/em>he reveals.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Broyez and Kronental\u2019s series highlights the vision behind La Grande Motte, a city\u00a0often seen as an architectural curiosity. \u2018This series, beyond its aesthetic pursuit, invites us to see La Grande Motte as a living space and a crystallization of sensations\u2026 a symbol of a dreamer\u2019s soul,\u2019 <\/em>the duo state.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n \t\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n \t\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n project info:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n name:<\/strong> La Cit\u00e9 Oasis<\/p>\n architect:<\/strong> Jean Balladur<\/p>\n photographers:<\/strong> Charly Broyez<\/a> | @charly.broyez<\/a> & Laurent Kronental<\/a> | @laurentkronental<\/a><\/p>\n location:<\/strong> La Grande Motte, Occitanie, France<\/p>\n The post broyez and kronental capture french seaside resort as sci-fi mirage at dawn in \u2018la cit\u00e9 oasis\u2019<\/a> appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental capture La Grande Motte \u00a0 France\u2019s La Grande Motte reveals itself at the break of day, when most seaside resorts lie dormant or disheveled, to Charly Broyez and Laurent Kronental … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLa Cit\u00e9 Oasis features jean balladur\u2019s seaside modern buildings<\/h2>\n
A Four-Year Study Through Large-Format Film<\/h2>\n
A Blueprint for Climate-Adaptive Cities<\/h2>\n
Personal Histories Shape a Shared Vision<\/h2>\n