Laurent Koetz

Laurent Koetz is an architect who graduated from ÉNSA Paris-Belleville in 1993 and has been a senior lecturer since 2006. He joined the School of Architecture of the City & Territories Paris-Est in 2013.

His research takes a cultural approach to the history of technology. In particular, it addresses the question of innovation and examines the role of little-known or marginalized actors in the development of discourses and practices in which invention plays a central role.

With this in mind, he studied the career of Louis-Auguste Boileau (1812-1896), a carpenter who became an architect, author of books on the history of progress, a great promoter of iron, and inventor of architectural systems. After defending his doctoral thesis (2020), he is now preparing a book on this architect (to be published in 2023).

Today, his work focuses more specifically on the study, between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, of architectural production distinguished by the use of raw materials, particularly wood and cement. The analysis focuses on the interactions between the technical, social, and political contexts in which these often unique constructions are built, characterized by the deliberate visibility of minimally processed materials.

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