The Festival des Architectures Vives offers the public an immersive exploration of Montpellier's architectural treasures each year - its historic courtyards. The 2025 edition, held from June 10-15, featured 13 installations within these historic sites, attracting nearly 16,000 visitors and receiving very positive feedback.

FAV 2025, with the delicious theme of "La Gourmandise"
"La Gourmandise", usually associated with the pleasure of the taste buds, was revealed in an architectural dimension where materials, shapes, and spaces were transformed into a true celebration of desire. Far from being a simple sin, indulgence bacame a vector of creativity and innovation. The installations awakened the desire to be explored, tasted with the eyes, and savored with the mind. For this delicious edition, talented Montpellier pastry chef Clara Jung was the patron.

Clara Jung: Patron of the FAV 2025
For this edition, dedicated to "La Gourmandise", it seemed obvious to entrust the role of patron to Clara Jung, a uniquely talented Montpellier pastry chef. Through this choice, the festival affirmed its desire to promote the talents of the region, who, through their creativity and high standards, promote artistic and sensory innovation both locally and beyond. By choosing her as patron, the festival celebrates local excellence.

Clara Jung's world is not limited to dessert creation. Each creation she offers is a true experience, both visual and gustatory. Plays of textures, harmonies of colors, balanced volumes...her desserts look like true works of art to be savored.

Her approach fully reflects the mind of the festival: awakening the senses, kindling curiosity, inviting exploration. Clara sculpts her creations with the same care that an architect applies to shaping a space. She explores materials: crispy, soft, and foamy, just as one would work with wood, concrete, or light.

Far from a simple guilty pleasure, "La Gourmandise" can become a driving force for creation, a source of inspiration. Clara Jung embodies this encounter between the culinary and architectural worlds: generous, bold, experimental, and resolutely focused on emotions.

For the FAV, Clara created "La bouche secrète du FAV," an ephemeral pastry designed especially for the festival, available in her downtown boutique.

Environmental commitment:
The Festival des Architectures Vives has reaffirmed its commitment to sustainability by maintaining a rigorous environmental charter. Continuing in partnership with Mas Réemploi, the festival encourages the use of recycled materials and reuse in the design of its facilities.

FAV x Odore Scola

In addition, the FAV and Montpellier perfumer Odore Scola have partnered to create a fragrance. A solar and mineral scent captures the ephemeral spirit of the Festival des Architectures Vives. It blends the strength of Montpellier's white stone with the vibrancy of a bold orange and the scent of a potted bitter orange tree from Anduze, a vegetal freshness that adds an unexpected touch.

Its scent pays homage to the balance between heritage and contemporary creation, etching the memory of suspended moments and unique encounters in the heart of the city.

Teams 

From over 90 applications received, the selection committee selected 10 teams. FAV 2025 brought together 23 architects, from 5 French teams and 5 international teams. In addition, two projects were presented as part of the European ReCITYing program, an initiative that explores new ways of reinvesting in urban space through architecture. Another project was also carried out in collaboration with the Quatorze association. A total of 13 installations invited the public to rediscover the streets of Montpellier.

• Jury prize
  TEMPLE (THE LAST CHEESEBURGER)
  Michael Cook & Garth Goldstein
  Boston - USA
  
  
• Public prize
  CALADE EXQUISE 
  Collectif Oeuvrer : Justine Dromard, Brann Le Garrec, Renaud De la Barre, Franck Durand, Simon Givelet & Sothida Long
  Mondrepuis - France
  
  
• Special prize
  RIBOTE 
  Benjamin Borne
  Chalindrey - France 
  
  
• Gourmandise prize / by Clara Jung
  MADELEINE DE PROUST
  Elodie Cottar & Florine Cottar 
  Paris - France 
  
  
• Environmental prize
  CHAUME SUBLIMÉ
  COAT - Conditions Atmosphériques d'Espaces :
  Julia Fraolini & Félix Steinbacher
  Lyon - France & Vienna - Austria
  
  
• JEANINE 
  Justine Viala
  Montpellier - France
  
  
• PAYSAGE DE PAIN 
  MERO Studios : Megan Dang & Rose Zhang
  New York - USA
  
  
• THE TASTING TONGUE
  Studio DENG : Qicheng Wu & Meichen Wang
  New York - USA
  
  
• ANG HALAGA NG TSOKOLATE 
  WTA Architecture & Design Studio :  Wiliam Ti, Carmelo Arancon & Exel Agapito 
  Manila - Philippines
  
  
• ÉBULLITION
  Simon Barret & Sébastien Bonnerot
  Bordeaux & Paris - France
  
  
• RÉCIPROCITÉ, A PAVILION FOR THE FUTURE
  A project in collaboration with the FAV
  Quatorze Association 
  Montpellier - France
  
  
• PORTRAIT OF A PLANET
  European ReCITYing Project
  UNIGE : University of Genoa - Italy
  
  
• FOOD-WASTE FUTURES
  European ReCITYing Project
  IAAC : Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
  Barcelona - Spain

Focus on the European ReCITYing project:
ReCITYing, a project co-founded by the European Union's Europe program, aims to create a networking and exchange platform on practices for the temporary reuse of urban spaces.

Intended for young creatives, professionals in architecture, design, and the arts, as well as policymakers and local social enterprises, this project promotes the regeneration of unused urban spaces and buildings into artistic laboratories and cultural incubators.

This project promotes the regeneration of unused urban spaces and buildings into artistic laboratories and cultural incubators.

It combines the expertise of several institutions:
the University of Genoa (UNIGE) (inclusive co-design), the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) (digital fabrication), the University of Hannover (LUH) (urban resilience strategies), the Maribor Art Gallery (UGM) (visual arts and artistic events), and the FAV.

During the 2025 edition of the festival, UNIGE and the IAAC presented works exploring the relationship between architecture and scenography, and between architecture and Land Art. During the 2027 edition, partners LUH and UGM will highlight the interactions between architecture and music, and between architecture and visual arts.