Rachel Rouzaud, a young architect from Saint-Macaire in southwestern France's Gironde region, continues her remarkable ascent in the architectural world through her selection as a finalist for a prestigious Paris exhibition. Following her participation in the acclaimed Venice Biennale of Architecture, Rouzaud and her Polish colleague Bernadetta Budzik are now showcasing their collaborative work in Paris until February 1, 2026. Their project has been recognized by the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris as one of four finalists for the 2025 Architecture Competition's Charles Abella Prize.
The exhibition, titled "Émulations II," is being held at the Palais de l'Institut de France and presents the work of the four finalist teams. Since 2023, the competition has proposed a common theme for all participants, with last year's theme being "Migrer" (Migration). The organizers selected these four projects from fifty initial submissions and six shortlisted teams after a call for applications launched in January 2025. Each project offers a different understanding of migration as both an action and a concept in architecture, challenging traditional definitions of the field.
Rouzaud and Budzik's project, titled "La rivière et le placard" (The River and the Cupboard), began with a powerful historical fact. During the reconstruction of Warsaw, which was completely razed during World War II, residents sent stones through the postal service to help rebuild their city. These stones traveled by water or road because the railway system had been destroyed. This act of collective solidarity became the foundation for their architectural exploration of how materials, knowledge, and human resilience move across territories and connect communities in times of crisis.
The architects conceived their project as a "Grand Tour" following water routes across a European territory imagined as a vast watershed. Their journey traces paths from the Polish mountains to the mouth of the Seine at Le Havre in France. Along the way, they collected various construction techniques to present in their exhibition. The Vistula River serves as their primary metaphor, demonstrating how landscape and human action co-produce possibilities for reconstruction through debris loaded onto barges, bricks recovered by neighbors, and riverbeds remodeled by human labor throughout history.
Their work is presented in three distinct forms: a wooden cupboard, a carpet, and a film. The wooden structure, which displays the collected construction techniques, was fabricated in Gironde between Saint-Macaire and Cenon before being transported to Paris. The piece was created in the workshop of a model maker named Mr. Quilici based in Cenon, who assisted the architects in realizing their vision. This local collaboration adds another layer of material connection to their transnational concept, bridging their French base with their Polish inspiration.
Although the final Charles Abella Prize of 20,000 euros was awarded to Mathieu Lucas for his project "Jardins de l'immersion," the experience provides an invaluable addition to Rouzaud and Budzik's developing careers. The other finalists included Étienne Gilly and Gianluca Gadaleta's "arèneeurope" and Iris Lacoudre's "Chambre souple." For Rouzaud, this Paris exhibition represents another significant milestone following her Venice Biennale participation, establishing her as a rising voice in contemporary European architecture and demonstrating the value of cross-cultural collaboration.
