The Magic 34% - LAN Architecture, from Hausmann and Beyond

It was in 2002 that Benoit Jallon and Umberto Napolitano founded the LAN studio in Paris – an acronym for Local Architecture Network – choosing a name that expressed a clear stance regarding the field in which architecture, while remaining dominant, is placed – art among arts – within a system that encompasses numerous other disciplines, both humanistic and technical in nature. If – as the founders state – the objective of LAN is to “explore architecture as an area of activity at the intersection of several disciplines”, the scope within which to act becomes a determining factor; this influences both the types of actions promoted and conducted, as well as the architectural results achieved. Starting from these premises, even before LAN’s projects, one must consider the research activities carried out by the laboratory within the studio; activities that over the years led Umberto Napolitano and Benoit Jallon to investigate Hausmann’s Paris, dissecting its architectural matter through surveys, drawings, and models, and then moving on to the analysis of the season of modern architecture in Naples, conducted with the same means, that is, using strictly architectural tools.