With an outstanding production in South America, the United States and Europe since the 1950s, Carlos Cruz-Diez is a pioneer of kinetic art. L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui’s latest special issue explores the Venezuelan artist interventions in architectural and urban spaces, from individual houses to a hydroelectric plant through pedestrian crossings or even an airport.

Considered as one of the main figures of kinetic and optic art, Carlos Cruz Diez (Caracas, 1923) is the father of a new cognitive approach to colour: he notably focused on a dissociation between form and colour “I changed the coloured plane into a succession of parallel coloured lines laid out vertically” ; “chromatic event modules” that materializes a colour “constantly appearing and disappearing over time”” as he explains. Based on this observation, he developed his work through several theories: additive colour (1959), chromatic induction (1963), dual-frequency induction (1986) and many others, to be discovered in this special issue. Internationally renowned, Carlos Cruz-Diez exhibited his work at the MoMA in New York during “The Responsive Eye”‘s exhibition in 1965, in the Venezuelan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1970, as well as at the Mitterrand gallery in Paris as part of the “Un être flottant”‘s exhibition, open until January 28th, 2017.

But Carlos Cruz-Diez’s work isn’t just made for museums. In July 2016, the artist, interviewed by AA, explains how his artistic commitment has always prompted him to intervene directly into the city: “The streets and architecture appeared to me as the best way to communicate art and to integrate it into society”. This interview conducted by journalist Olivier Namias, portrays Carlos Cruz-Diez as a humanist, conscious of an art that is open to all, prompting him to work with architects and engineers in order to integrate his work in office spaces, public spaces, or passageways. For this special issue, guest editor Jean-Philippe Hugron, founder of Le courier de l’Architecte, selected six of his emblematic projects: the walkways of the Miami Marlins baseball stadium, Kenex Plaza Panama’s façades, Simón Bolívar International airport in Maiquetía, the Union Bank of Switzerland’s headquarter in Zurich, the footbridge in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines’s train station and finally the machinery room No. 1 of the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric Central in Guri, Venezuela. This project, carried out in two 250 meters long halls, with a height of 30 meters, is the largest chromatic environment ever designed, and is only accessible to employees of the plant. Interviews with specialists – sociologists, architects or curators – and similar projects are published amongst this selection of major accomplishments, attesting the richness of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s work.

Available at since October 28th.

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Special issue AA Projects – Carlos Cruz-Diez, 72 pages, € 10, order here.
Produced with the support of the Atelier Cruz-Diez in Paris.