Atelier LUMA in Arles, France, envisioned by the collectives Assemble and BC Architects & Studies, stands as a compelling redefinition of architectural agency, where the reuse of an old industrial hall becomes the foundation for an experimental platform combining material research, community involvement and territorial circularity, retaining the building’s stoic façade—an austere rhythm of limestone gables—as a silent witness to the transformation within, where architecture is no longer the result but the medium of inquiry, interaction and making, as the interior hosts a layered system of rammed earth structures, untreated wood modules and biomaterial labs developed on site in collaboration with local artisans, farmers and scientists, establishing an active infrastructure rather than a finished object, exemplified by the integration of bioplastics made from algae, pigments sourced from the nearby Rhône delta and reed techniques from Camargue marshes, forming a living architecture that is both ecological and social in essence, and especially evident in the co-designed components made with traditional methods reinterpreted for contemporary use, revealing how vernacular knowledge can evolve without nostalgia into cutting-edge sustainable practices, while the project itself refuses fixity, instead embracing a morphogenetic logic where space, material and governance are co-produced and open to change, suggesting a new paradigm where design becomes a metabolising force that activates territorial intelligence, empowers community participation and expands the ethical scope of architectural practice beyond aesthetics or performance towards care, continuity and commoning.
