From 29 August to 6 September, fifteen students from around the world with diverse backgrounds gathered in the village of Conques to study local vernacular architecture and the Romanesque architecture of the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy. For over a week, they practised measured drawing and sketching, studied Romanesque architecture from the point of view of structure and ornamentation, drew the bases of the abbey church pillars and the capitals of the abbey cloister, and wandered the streets of Conques day and night, paying attention to the materials used, the quality of the mortar and the symbols engraved here and there on the stone. They familiarised themselves with the history and flora of the region, walked the paths of Saint Jacob and mingled with the pilgrims who flock to the abbey church in the evening to attend musical vigils. But above all, they were moved by the beauty of this ever-changing landscape, the clouds covering the valley in the early morning, the sumptuous storms, the lightning illuminating the rainy night, the sun reappearing when you least expect it... in short: the movements of nature that provide architecture with the most beautiful of stages.

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At the end of this course, our students have acquired a method for interpreting traditional architecture based on historical knowledge and reasoning. The vernacular architecture of Conques is a matter of reason: as the village sits on a large block of schist, this stone is used to build walls and construct roofs; where architecture requires precision, as in the abbey church, red sandstone and limestone from Lunel are extracted from surrounding quarries. Wood, which is abundant in the surrounding forests, is used to build floors above a stone base designed to withstand the passage of water. Where the joists are exposed to the elements, their small section is covered with a slate tile. Finally, as the side of the valley on which Conques is located faces south, the construction is laid out in tiers, with streets running parallel to the contour lines, forming terraces from which each house receives its share of light and heat. Armed with the theoretical and practical knowledge to analyse and understand the vernacular architecture of Conques, our students can return to their home countries and apply the same method and reasoning to architectural forms from a variety of contexts.

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We had the pleasure of spending two weeks with such talented and promising people.

Many thanks to all of them!

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Anush KALACHYAN, Fiona CAUGHEY, Marc TASSO, Mariia SOLOVEI,
Eunice THO, Fergus BRADLEY, Gertrud OBERG, Pauline BENSUSSAN, Romane
SERGANT, Alexander ABSMANN, Matthew WATSON, Wouter VAN HEST, Riina LII
PARVE, Leonie HOBERT & Aliénor CROS

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Many thanks also to the teachers and lecturers!

 

Nadia EVERARD, Noé MORIN, William PESSON & Valérie DUCLOS.​

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A glimpse of the 2025 edition (Instagram video)

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