Held annually for the past 20 years, the Festival des Architectures Vives (FAV) aims to showcase the courtyards of Montpellier’s private mansions located in the historic city centre. Through architectural and artistic installations, the festival invites visitors to discover this hidden heritage and explore some of the city’s most remarkable yet often inaccessible spaces. Each year, an international competition is open to architects from around the world, leading to the selection of several temporary installations specifically designed for the event and exhibited for nearly a week within these historic courtyards.

To celebrate its 20th edition, held from 9 to 14 June 2026 under the theme of Transmission, the festival organisers introduced an exceptional format. Architects who had participated in previous editions, along with several special guests, were invited to mentor a team. A total of 13 teams were selected to create 13 installations of varying scales and concepts.

Ateliers A+

Founded in Montpellier in the late 1990s, Ateliers A+ was among the agencies invited to mentor a team for the 2026 edition. In September 2025, an in-house team of young professionals was assembled to take part in the competition, with an additional challenge set by the mentoring architects: to develop a proposal inspired by the notion of “panache”. The team, composed of four architects, a landscape engineer and an architect/urban planner, spent several months designing a joyful, colourful and surprising temporary installation: Panache de Lumière.

Panache de Lumière

Following two days of installation, the project opened to the public on 9 June 2026 in the Cour de la Petite Loge. Hidden behind a striking red gateway at the end of a narrow street, the work revealed itself within an intimate and almost secret courtyard. Suspended above the space by a lightweight steel structure, the installation consisted of a net supporting more than 600 coloured elements. Inspired by stained-glass windows, these translucent components captured natural light, creating an ever-changing interplay of transparency, reflection and colour throughout the day. Animated by the wind, they formed a chromatic canopy in constant motion. As visitors moved through the courtyard and perspectives shifted, colours intensified, overlapped and combined to generate an endless variety of visual compositions. The installation encouraged visitors to look upward, slow down and take time to appreciate every detail.

According to figures released by the organisers, 18,000 visitors attended the 2026 edition of the FAV. Over the course of the six-day festival, they discovered Panache de Lumière and awarded it the Public Prize through a visitor vote.

Extending the Journey

The festival officially closed on Sunday, 14 June 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Dismantled the following day, the installation has since travelled to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, where it will be presented once again as part of the Architecture en Fête festival, held during the Month of Architecture in the Occitanie region. This new exhibition will extend the visibility of the project within an exceptional heritage setting: the Chartreuse Notre-Dame-du-Val-de-Bénédiction, a nationally protected historic monument.