Cabane and librairie 7L

Designed by: orizzontale

The Roman architectural collective orizzontale has designed a project that takes place in two areas of the Villa Medici: on the outside square, a reading room that welcomes visitors, and in the vestibule, the Librairie 7L, which presents a selection of works specially chosen for the festival.

The reading room, installed on the entrance threshold of the Villa Medici, is designed as a suspended terrace that invites visitors to change their perspective by taking a step up to read or observe the liveliness of the street.

The Librairie 7L hosts a selection of beautiful books highlighting the interaction between architecture and nature. This selection explores the work of architects, artists, photographers and philosophers. In the autumn, the selection of books will be enriched by publications dedicated to cinema, in echo to the Villa Medici Film Festival which will take place from 13 to 17 September 2023.

Building materials: wood and shading mesh
Design year: 2023
Dimensions: 14 x 2,70 x 6,75 m
Design: orizzontale
Manufacture, production and assembly: Handle Art&Design Exhibition

About Librairie 7L

The Librairie 7L, founded in 1999 by Karl Lagerfeld in Paris, was acquired in 2021 by CHANEL. 7L stands for 7 rue de Lille, in the 7^th arrondissement of Paris, but also for Karl Lagerfeld’s favourite number.

I love this place so much that it is part of me, said the great bibliophile couturier, an insatiable seeker of beauty and knowledge.

7L celebrates its founder’s unconditional love of books and photography. The 700 m² space brings together a bookshop dedicated to new works in the field of visual arts, a cultural space where contemporary creation is inspired by the contents of his personal library (present in his former photo studio adjoining the bookshop), as well as Éditions 7L.

On the bookshop side, the editorial line reflects the diversity of artistic production of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. It presents works on photography, design, decoration and interior architecture, as well as monographs on the fashion arts, catalogues of major exhibitions, and books on gardens and ceramics.

Learn more at librairie7l.com or @librairie7l

About orizzontale

orizzontale is an architects’ collective based in Rome whose work crosses the fields of architecture, urbanism, public art and DIY practice. Since 2010, orizzontale has been promoting relational public space projects that are both a testing ground for new forms of interaction between inhabitants and the urban commons, and an opportunity to test the limits of the architectural design process. orizzontale has built and developed numerous projects in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Greece, Ukraine, Portugal and the Netherlands. “8 ½”, the mobile theatre built by orizzontale in 2014, is the winner of the International Young Architects Program Award (“YAP MAXXI 2014”) awarded by the MAXXI Museum and MoMA PS1. In 2016, orizzontale won the competition for the regeneration of the Piazza della Comunità Europea in Aprilia (Lazio), organised by the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian National Council of Architects. The project was awarded in 2020 by the Premio Urbanistica of the National Institute of Urban Planning (Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica – INU). At the 2018 Venice Biennale, orizzontale received the Young Talent Award for Italian Architecture, which rewards the best Italian studio under the age of 35. In 2021, the collective was invited to participate in the Italian pavilion of the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale. The orizzontale collective is made up of: Jacopo Ammendola, Juan López Cano, Giuseppe Grant, Margherita Manfra, Nasrin Mohiti Asli, Roberto Pantaleoni and Stefano Ragazzo.

Learn more at www.orizzontale.org or @orizzontale_architecture

In partnership with:

CHANEL
LIBRAIRIE 7L
FRENCH ACADEMY IN ROME – VILLA MEDICI