Le pouvoir de l'État français sur l'architecture : engagements institutionnels et trajectoires individuelles

Abstract

This article questions the role of the French State today, within the field of architecture, in order to understand the permanence of its authority. Could it be that, as its prerogatives as a project owner of architectural design contracts are diminishing due to economic crises and decentralisation, the State, through its cultural promotion activities, has turned towards as a prescriber of talent? In this way, it invented more symbolic instruments of power. We have studied the trajectories and practices of actors in two centralised services, from the 1980s to the present day: the Mission interministérielle pour la qualité des constructions publiques (MIQCP) and the Institut français d'architecture (Ifa). This has allowed us to demonstrate that the French system of governance maintains a centrality of powers, in a cultural world that is nevertheless decentralised and within professional groups that are self-governed.

Keywords

• field
• architecture
• French state
• public order
• mediatisation
• communication