Luca Merlini

The editorial idea

This publication highlights the intimate relation between books and architecture. In this sense it is fully in line with the work of Caryatide which aims to promote a reflection on architecture, art and design. 
 In the book «La traversée de ma bibliothèque», Luca Merlini takes us closer to the creative process of the architect and the parallel that can be drawn with literature.

How does one inhabit a book? What kind of space do you build in your head when you come out of reading a novel? The question of the relationship between architecture and literature has often been asked. Is this just another work that relates to it? No, because this is an adventure book, written and drawn. A sort of Indiana Jones adventure: what kind of architectural jungle do you find yourself in when you walk through a library? It is a journey that involves going back and forth, drifting and going to places beyond the reading. It is a crossing that gives a spatial point of view on the reading of books, which here becomes a new type of architectural walk.

Thus this work also raises the question of representation and the tool of drawing as a constructive element of architecture. The readings generate mental images capable of influencing and accompanying the architects in the construction of spaces.

Luca Merlini

Luca Merlini is an architect born in Mendrisio (Switzerland) and graduated from the ETH in Zurich. He opened his architectural studio in Lausanne and Paris, after working in New York and Paris with Bernard Tschumi (Manhattan Transcripts, Parc de la Villette, for which he was project manager). Often awarded prizes in competitions for combative projects that show a strong theoretical commitment, he did not really get down to work until the end of the 1990s, in particular through the Ponts-Villes project (public transport interface at Flon in Lausanne). It was as if constructing an approach was as important as constructing a building… This voluntary passage through concepts and methods has subsequently enabled him to work on the project in all its scales and diversities. He is, for example, the designer of the reflection on a «vagabond territory» of 700km2, a project which resulted in Expo.02 in the 3-Lakes region of Switzerland. Today he works for Merlini-Rivier architects in Lausanne and is notably working on the extension of the Lausanne Central Station. From 2013 to 2021, he was a consultant architect for the State in the department of Seine-St-Denis (93), a territory facing profound changes.
 He has taught or been a guest professor in various schools of architecture (Geneva, Strasbourg, Cagliari, Palermo, Trieste, Paris) and is now Professor Emeritus at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Malaquais and a member of the LIAT research laboratory. Luca Merlini is the author of texts-drawings and architectural tales including: Les Habitants de la lune (1999), Le pays des maisons longues…et autres trajectoires (2011), L’archipel Tschumi : cinq îles (2014), Le XIQ, dits et dessins d’architecture (2017).

Support this project !

We strongly believe in the importance of this book. Drawing implies a projection, it is a materialization of the thought necessary to the creative process of the architect. 
It seems to us very interesting and fundamental that this reflection can exist through this book, which approaches this subject with great sensitivity. We have been working on this project for a long time, continuing to develop and discuss it with the author Luca Merlini. With your support, you will make the project possible ! We are working hard to bring you the book in the next few months !