A leap of faith in the realm of the possible

The architectural projects and building operations conducted over the past three decades by Patrick Bouchain and his collaborators challenge a series of assumptions regarding architecture’s authorship, its purpose and usage. Examined in light of Paul Ricoeur’s theory of action revealed in The Course of Recognition (2007), several of Bouchain’s experiments, such as the recently founded École du domaine du possible in Arles, can be understood as tactical, generous and convivial ways of making space where users are recognised through their deeds: as authors, inhabitants and citizens.