Mathias Vincent-Palazzi

Mathias Vincent-Palazzi (1994) is a researcher and spatial designer. After graduating from Sandberg Instituut, he co-founded the research and creation studio Niveau Zéro Atelier in his hometown Paris.

Thanks to the tools of architecture, art and design, the studio develop works focused on the practices that inhabits specific territories. Looking at how these intertwine social, ecological, technological, and economical urgencies, the studio make objects, propose narratives, suggest solutions, often embracing technic as a vector for reappropriation of the world.

Derived from site-specific analyses, arises a multi-scale practice, ranging from experimental to purely functional, which can involve both speculation and/or simple construction.

https://www.niveauzeroatelier.space/

what makes the beauty of an ecosystem such as the one that exists in Tinos is the clear and perfect intertwinment of a landscape, the architecture, the bodies that inhabits it, the collective memory. To say it short, the things that makes a culture. In the built environment expresses a true knowledge of a territory, from the latter arises a craft, that represents certain myths, themselves lying at the fringe of the mountain and the sky, sky that
welcomes the brilliant sun that explains why house are so white.
I believe that this is in the inter-relation between all these terms that arises vernacularity, when « poetry exists through the rational, in a silent way, and the other way around »(C. Levi-Strauss) We’re in a moment of history where the question of how « to get local again » is pressing, whether it’s cultural or economic. One could not go without the other. However, getting local does not mean getting back in the past. How to recreate vernacularity? Take care of it, beside the care for tradition? I believe an Island like Tinos, thanks to it’s deep traditional heritage and it’s insular qualities is a perfect and
perhaps pioneering place to reflect upon these questions.

Dry stone walls, composed of a vast quantity of unused stone, can be found throughout the western part of Tinos. While these walls were once integral to the island’s agricultural production, their use has declined in recent years. Despite this, many recognize the walls as a valuable part of the island’s heritage that demands preservation. Alongside these stone walls, low-quality buildings constructed from cylinder blocks are built to accommodate seasonal tourists. The prevalence of these imported, energy-consuming materials raises questions about the economic and ideological conditions that led to their use over abundant local materials. Furthermore, what is the relationship between these imported materials and the island’s heritage?

To explore these questions, the artist has refurbished a small shed located in a quarry by replacing its door. The design takes cues from ancient Tinian Strifogeros door systems used in stone wall construction.

Made from a combination of green marble, reclaimed wood, asphalt, and bronze, the door exemplifies an iconoclastic approach to building that integrates a wide range of material. Whether they are cheap or expensive, sourced locally or globally, or even contain chemical components, this approach seeks to break from a dogmatic adherence to heritage and instead strives to balance preservation with innovation.