"Unbuild Together: Archaism vs. Modernity". Pavilion of the Republic of Uzbekistan at Venice Biennale 2023

Studio KO. Since meeting at the Beaux-Arts school of Architecture in Paris and the subsequent creation of their studio in 2000, Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty have applied their elementary assertion to every scale of their projects. Rooted in classical training, the duo asserts a global and immersive approach to their profession, from architecture to interior design and furniture design. At the heart of their approach is freedom without compromise and the need to create a unique narrative, the most in tune with the truth of the context.

Based in Paris and Marrakech, Studio KO creates contemporary public and residential architecture all over the world, inspired by the intelligence of places. Not confined to a grammar of styles or any systematic methods, the studio is defined by an attitude. An esteem for nature and existing cultures, the audacity of the broad aesthetic differences, and attention to craftsmanship and local skills, a permanent search for the rugged. For an architecture of oxymoron. Radical and archaic. An architecture with a sensibility that, from the foundations to the signature scent, reveals, without arrogance, its uniqueness and mystery.

At the beginning of each project, there is an encounter. Human, above all, from the initial conversation that takes place with a patron. Physical and sensory after, through the discovery of a site that imposes itself through its landscape and its social and economic fabric. Then comes the moment of dialogue between the elements and the experimentation with unknown territory. Working at the edge of archaeology leads architects to explore the site and its history in order to grasp its essence. This continued creative process allows Studio KO to find its way naturally. A prerequisite for the emergence of contemporary, appropriate and vivid forms.

Privileging primary and ancestral materials derived from the hand of man - stone, wood, metal, leather -, the studio creates spaces in constant tension. The purity of lines contrasts with the materiality of the textures, the rugged with the organic, the light with the dark, the sophisticated with the bare. The vernacular simplicity with a modernist spirit. The harsh and imposing exteriors of the private villas, mineral monoliths named with a single cryptic letter, contrast with sensual and transparent interiors that engage their proprietors in a symbiotic relationship with the environment.

Each of the projects lends itself to unique experimentation, to new encounters of textures, techniques and light. In a "here and now" that invites, relentlessly, the sensitivity and the humanity.