The Documentary Center will be closed to the public from June 30 to August 29, 2025.

Reopening on Monday, September 1, 2025 at 1:00 pm.

Whether you want to relax or not... the documentary center has installed a participatory puzzle. The principle is simple: everyone is welcome to contribute their piece to the puzzle. No need to spend hours on it, just add 1, 2, 3 pieces, or more if you like. For this first puzzle, the choice fell on the city of Le Havre and the cultural building Le Volcan by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. There's nothing better than a puzzle to help you stimulate your attention, concentration, observation, reflection, memorization, and connect the dots.

On Friday, June 27, 2025, theENSA Normandie documentation centerENSA Normandie "Le rendez-vous de la pédagogie" (The Education Forum) in the renovated premises of the Ateliers du Parc, an event organized each year by Normandie Université.

This day provides an opportunity for COMUE library staff working as trainers to meet and exchange experience and practices.

The theme is "Training students in AI". The University of Caen and the University of Le Havre will provide feedback on the AI training provided in their establishments, and workshops on building training bricks will be offered.

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Every year, in the first week of July, ENSA librarians disappear from their libraries and meet up at a school of architecture to attend the ArchiRès seminar. This singular event has been taking place since 1969, the year the network of architecture school libraries was born. ArchiRès is therefore the name of the network, the seminar and the common catalog that you can consult on the Internet for your research.

This year, the IMTV (Institut Méditerranéen de la Ville et des Territoires) in Marseille welcomed them to its brand new premises. The theme of the seminar was "Ecological transition: libraries at the heart of social and environmental issues" .

This seminar is an opportunity to exchange practices, review the year's work and joint projects, and take in cultural visits.

We owe our favorite book of the month of May, "Nous avons mangé la Terre", to a virtuous circle.

Jean-Robert Viallet, journalist and film-maker, is the author of the documentary "L'homme a mangé la terre" ("Man ate the earth"). The idea of making this film, which analyzes and denounces the chain of events that led to the current environmental situation, was inspired by the work of Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, authors of the book "L'évènement anthropocène, la Terre, l'histoire et nous" ("The anthropocene event, the earth, history and us").

The two historians and the journalist wanted to make available to as many people as possible the iconographic documents, photographs, maps and advertisements unearthed in the archives to illustrate the documentary's themes. The result is a book of images, sometimes shocking or highly visual, explained by captions or commentaries.

We have eaten the Earth... but who will eat us?

In collaboration with Arte campus*, the documentary department and teacher Karima Younsi organized a masterclass with director Jean-Robert Viallet** on the theme of the Anthropocene on April 25, 2025. The event was moderated by journalist and film-maker Anne-Lise Carlo***. It was also broadcast live on Web TV Normandie.

Jean-Robert Viallet presented his work and his documentary "L'homme a mangé la terre" (Man ate the earth), short extracts from which were screened.

This event was a unique opportunity to exchange views with a director committed to climate change issues. We would like to thank the many students, teachers and administrative staff who attended the masterclass.

You can watch the replay on Web TV Normandie in the coming days. Keep an eye on Instagram poledocensa76 for the date.

To pursue this line of thought, the Documentary Department has drawn from its collections a selection of books and DVDs on the themes of the Anthropocene and climate change. To see the list, click HERE

* The Arte campus VOD platform is available on the ArchiRès home page. Log in to your account to access it.

** Jean-Robert Viallet directed the documentaries "L'Homme a mangé la terre", "la mise mort du travail", for which he received the Albert Londres prize, "Etudiants, avenir à crédit" and "Le système Total, anatomie une multinationale énergie". la mise à mort du travail", for which he received the Albert Londres prize, "Etudiants, l'avenir à crédit" and "Le système Total, anatomie d'une multinationale de l'énergie". These documentaries are available on the Arte Campus platform.

***Anne-Lise Carlo is the director of the documentary series "Toxic tour", also available on Arte Campus.

April 25, 2025 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm - Amphi Jean Duminy.

Jean-Robert Viallet, director of the documentary L’homme a mangé la terre(Man Ate the Earth), will be atENSA Normandie a masterclass on the Anthropocene. The aim of this masterclass, organized in collaboration with ARTE Campus, is both to understand major environmental issues and to address the audiovisual treatment of these crucial topics. The event will be moderated by Anne-Lise Carlo, journalist and director. It is organized in conjunction with Karima Younsi's S4 and S6 sociology classes and the Documentary Department. Jean-Robert Viallet is the author of several documentaries available on Arte Campus via your Archirès account, including L'Homme a mangé la terre (Man Ate the Earth), which echoes the S6 course on "Architecture in the Capitalocene," and La Mise à mort du travail (The Death of Work), which resonates with the S4 course program on "Work, Gender, and Social Classes." This Masterclass is open to the entire School.

Link from your archires account by clicking HERE

On February 10 and 11, 2025, the Elysée Palace hosted the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence (AI) organized by the Elysée Palace, our media space was saturated for a week by this event.

But what exactly do we know about this new technology?

Whether you don't want to feel overwhelmed, or you'd like to learn more about the subject, the Documentary Center has compiled a list of references including books, ebooks, documentaries and conferences on the subject of Artificial Intelligence in all its forms. The place of AI in architectural design is also examined, as is the future of the architectural profession, particularly in terms of how much of the creative process remains when assisted by AI.

Selection of Books, Ebooks, Articles, Conferences by clicking HERE

Arte documentaries by clicking HERE - (access limited to internal communities)

In 2023, Les Editions Alternatives published "Le tour des matériaux d'une maison écologique", a book designed by the Anatomies d'architecture collective. In 2024, it was the subject of an exhibition at CAUE Rhône Métropole, supported by Maison de l'architecture de Normandie, Grands Ateliers and Territoires Pionniers. The digital version is available HERE

"Le tour des matériaux d'une maison écologique" recounts the experimental adventure of a group who set themselves the challenge of renovating a traditional house in Orléans using only natural materials (wood, hemp, etc.) found less than 100 km from the building site. The central question posed by this book is how to reconnect housing with its territory?

You can choose to read it from A to Z to discover the project in its entirety, or by chapter, like a dictionary of materials. The authors have chosen a dynamic narrative form, a comic strip and an interview.

This project was nominated for the Équerre d'argent 2022 award in the 1st work category.

For more information click HERE

April 3, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. –ENSA Normandie Documentation Center.

Book presentation, discussion on the theme of dystopia/utopia and book sales

"AI surveillance of privatized housing estates, mega-infrastructure projects, heat islands in the ghettos... Nothing has been mapped out yet! Far from prefabs and reinforced concrete, the city of tomorrow is already teeming, crumbling and pushing back at the same time." Two authors from Normandy, Blanzat and Ariane by their pen names, have contributed to this collection of science fiction short stories, published by La Volte in autumn 2024. At a time of ecological and social backlash, Blanzat and Ariane project themselves politically into the future, using literature to think about the city and architecture of tomorrow.

At the invitation of the seminar Enquête(s) sur la fabrique écologique de l'architecture (DE Expérimentation), these individuals will present their work and discuss the need for science fiction to move beyond dystopia and reinvent a form of critical utopia.

Cover illustration © Hao