Forty minutes east of Montpellier on France’s Mediterranean coast sits a midcentury complicated as soon as disparaged as “architectural pollution” by L’Structure d’Aujourd’hui. The seminal work of architect Jean Balladur, La Grande Motte — which implies “the big mound” — is a modernist improvement comprising buildings impressed by pyramids and mastabas that rise above the sandy, inexperienced expanse of a former farm between the Étang de l’Ór lagoon and the open sea.
Conceived as a resort throughout the post-war interval when Europeans have been once more embracing vacation journey, La Grande Motte accommodates practically 38,000 vacationers in trip properties, residences, and campsites. Balladur realized the undertaking throughout what is named the Les Trente Glorieuses, or “the glorious thirty,” a interval of financial prosperity following the top of World Struggle II. And for him, the resort represented a super metropolis through which lodging was comparatively reasonably priced and residents might escape socio-economic pressures.
For photographers and collaborators Laurent Kronental and Charly Broyez, who typically concentrate on structure and concrete environments, La Grande Motte introduced a novel alternative to discover an notorious location which, over time, has grown on its critics. More and more seen as an idea nicely forward of its time, its distinctive kinds, white facades, sculptural components, and concord with nature supplied an irresistible focus for a collection titled La Cité Oasis—un Rêve Futuriste au bord de la Méditerranée, or, The Oasis Metropolis—a Futuristic Dream on the Mediterranean.
Between 2019 and 2023, Kronental and Broyez captured the gleaming towers, arched silhouettes, sculptural components, and brutalist particulars in dusky, glowing photos that radiate a sense of summertime. We see the nuanced influences Balladur included from sources just like the pre-Columbian pyramids of Teotihuacan, Mexico, or Le Corbusier’s La Cité radieuse in close by Marseille. Every constructing is exclusive, rising from the sand like huge, inhabitable sculptures.
Broyez and Kronental’s photos are devoid of individuals, however umbrellas on balconies, towls hanging to dry, or open home windows counsel their presence. Exploring La Grande Motte was “like discovering a parallel world in which we don’t know if we’ve found the remains of an ancient civilization, or entered the future,” Kronental instructed The New York Instances.
Take a look at each Broyez and Kronental on Instagram, and peruse the complete undertaking, which consists of practically 70 pictures.
