CIRECA / Domaine de Boisbuchet

Mission Statement

Founded in 1986, Domaine de Boisbuchet is an international research center for design and architecture. The campus is surrounded by 150 hectares of protected nature in southwest France and comprises an architectural park of historic and contemporary buildings. Our workshops, exhibitions, and events as well as a design collection and library serve professional guests and visitors from the neighboring and global community alike.

Not only have our workshops generated countless graphic, product, furniture, or interior designs, but also several experimental buildings, which today enrich the Domaine. They are placed carefully within the landscape park around the existing historic buildings, including a 19th century castle as the centrepiece. The castle also provides a unique setting for Boisbuchet’s temporary exhibitions – often they are created in collaboration with universities and students and prepared for subsequent touring to university galleries and public museums.

International Role

For more than thirty years every summer, more than 300 students and young professionals have been taking part in our workshop program and, since 2020, in our artistic residencies. Boisbuchet workshops are recognized for the exceptional prestige of their tutors – most of them internationally renowned architects and designers, from Pritzker Prize-winning architects such as Alvaro Siza and Shigeru Ban to designers such as Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Sabine Marcelis, Formafantasma, Jaime Hayón or Max Lamb. The list of international tutors who have taught courses at Boisbuchet totals more than 400 representatives.

Since its beginnings, CIRECA/Domaine de Boisbuchet has established fruitful partnerships with well reputed institutions such as the Keio University in Tokyo, with whom we cooperated in a film documentary for Japanese television. We worked with the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) on the conception of the Techstyle-Haus for the international Solar Decathlon competition. Together with EPFL in Switzerland, we conceived an exhibition on vernacular architecture, which was shown at Boisbuchet and later travelled to several European venues. With the Mexican university UNAM we realised a five year partnership for the participation of 20 students per year. IED in Madrid has regularly supported groups of their students to participate in our workshops, and the Xue Xue Institute, Taipei’s leading private art school, is one of Boisbuchet’s closest partners. In recent years we have organized workshops and summer schools in Boisbuchet with universities and schools such as Pratt Institute (USA), Artez ( The Netherlands), or The Design Village (India).

National Role

During the more than 30 years that CIRECA has developed its program of workshops, exhibitions and artistic residencies at Domiane de Boisbuchet it has become both a regional and national reference in the field of design and architecture education in France.

CIRECA / Domaine de Boisbuchet has collaborated with a large number of French universities, schools and other institutions, complementing its educational programs through a hands-on and experimental approach in an always international environment. Some of the notable collaborations include the following:

– The co-organization of workshops on design and architecture with universities such as ENSA Paris, ENSA Limoges or Cité scolaire Raymond Loewy.
– An annual program of exhibitions, which takes place at the Château de Boisbuchet every summer.
– A program of lectures opened to the public with each of the workshops's tutors.
– A program of guided tours of the architectural park for visitors and schools in the region.

Main Focus

CIRECA / Domaine de Boisbuchet is especially known for its unique variety of hands-on workshops and seminars in design, architecture and their related disciplines. Over 400 internationally acclaimed experts have conducted workshops and seminars here, which usually take place between June and September, addressing students as well as professionals from all over the world. Renowned universities and corporations collaborate with CIRECA to realise these workshops that allow participants to acquire professional experience choosing from a wide range of fields, including product design, architecture, new media, fashion design, choreography, food design, textile, scenography, ceramics, glassblowing or performing arts.