#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.
Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.
We spoke to Cyril Lancelin, the artist behind @town.and.concrete. Though his work is designed to be experienced in person, it has far more than a full life on Instagram. In fact, Instagram was in part the inspiration for his career as an installation artist. The work and its imagery are equally dreamy; they reflect the demands of the current generation of Instagram models and all-around selfie enthusiasts.
How did you begin curating your Instagram profile in relation to your professional practice?
Actually, it was more the opposite. I started to imagine houses or installation, and posted them on Instagram. I wanted to take the time to represent some idea I had in mind with no pressure connected to a client, site, timeline, budget... It was more like a research lab, and at the end, likewise some student workshop, you pin your images on the wall, and everybody comments.
View this post on InstagramInstallation "Pyramid Sphere" @miafest in Philadelphia. Curated by @artproductionfund . photo by Ed Newton. #artshow #artist #publicart #inflatable #sculpturepark #sculpture #cyrillancelin #miafest #artproductionfund #installation #design #designer #architect #cool #amazing #pictureoftheday #summer #pink #artgallery #jayz
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Do you design your structures with your Instagram audience in mind?
I was intrigued about why when I look at the instagram general gallery with some small thumbail, I decide to click on one image more than another one. It's a little bit like when I was student as an architect going in an art bookstore, opening all of them and buying one at the end. Why this one? For the Instagram images, I noticed that there was something unexpected in the image selected; something about the scale, a multiplication of an element, two objects together, a material used in a strange way...
I decided to apply those recipes or rules I was finding to the new images I was creating.
View this post on InstagramHouse "round", circles garden, french island. #architecture #architect #architecturelovers #archdaily #archdesign #interiordesigner #interior #decor #designboom #home #casa #cool #fun #amazing #pictureoftheday #graphic #garden #kinfolkmag #kinfolk #dwell #contemporaryart #artinstallation #pink #luxury #lifestyle
A post shared by Cyril Lancelin (@town.and.concrete) on
What have you hoped to communicate about your own architecture through your posts?
I always have been interested in habitation. I was studying the Houses of Reversible Destiny by Madeline Gins and Arakawa, and it was always helpful to get new ideas as a young architect or student. In my own architecture, I like to test how two spaces, or two rooms for example are connected. I love to use what I call Primitives Elements, such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, then I assemble or multiply them to built spaces. In the 3d software, I dont use draw a line, I use multiply an object. I publish on my posts those results. I mix Houses and Art Installations, I don't need to choose, I connect them. It's funny lot of Artists are fascinated by Architects, and Architects are inspired by Artists.
View this post on InstagramHouse "cabins", primitives volume under a large roof. #art #artist #architecturelovers #amazingarchitecture #archdaily #architect #luxury #luxuryhouse #designer #decor #dezeen #designboom #kinfolkmag #cerealmag #wallpaper #sun #pictureoftheday #pictoftheday #interior #lifestyle #light #summer #minimal
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How do you treat your social media differently than your own personal website?
Social media is first, sometimes I post just some new idea, to see how people react to them. It helps a lot to have feedback. Social media is more a lab, the fresh ideas or projects, and the website is more a portfolio organized.
View this post on InstagramInstallation "flamingo", parametric inflatable structure, itinerant. #arts #art #architecture #architecturelovers #artforum #amazing #cool #picoftheday #pictureoftheday #photography #nofilter #minimalism #dezeen #designboom #interiordesign #installation #artgallery #contemporaryart #kinfolk #cerealmag #dwell #cgi #graphic #summer #beach #fun
A post shared by Cyril Lancelin (@town.and.concrete) on
Do you post your work anywhere else online? Is Instagram your social media channel of choice?
I post sometimes on Pinterest, as often as graphic designer, architects, agencies, and designers are doing mood-boards. It's a great place to find images you are looking for by using keywords. But most of my clients have found me on Instagram. It's like a message in a bottle, your ideas and images are travelling and sometimes they arrive in the hands of somebody who was interested in them. If you keep those ideas in your computer, they might be there still in 10 years.
View this post on InstagramHouse "hill", view on the city side, parametric walls made of primitives elements, Los Angeles, CA. #architects #architecturelovers #archdaily #archdigest #houses #interior #interiordesign #ignant #designboom #dezeen #kinfolk #cerealmag #archilovers #installation #art #artist #architecture #architecture_hunter #cool #amazing #lifestyle #luxury #retaildesign
A post shared by Cyril Lancelin (@town.and.concrete) on
What are some of your favorite Instagram profiles to follow?
People I love to follow are @thismintymoment, @teaaalexis , @iheartblob , @c_a_g_e , @tishkbarzanji and @chrisprecht of penda architect.
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