Jacques Rougerie
You see the ocean as an adventure – the great expedition of the 21st century: what is it that fascinates you so much about oceanographic exploration and when exactly did you develop a passion for the underwater world?
The ocean has always fascinated me. I was born in Paris, but I spent the first ten years of my life in Abidjan, capital of Ivory Coast, which was the first time I saw the sea, the wind, the waves, the big African beaches, fishermen, the dugouts… The Ocean was my horizon and my fascination for it is inexplicable – it just is. As for the underwater world, it was the first thing I read about and the stories as well as the people surrounding an explorer father led me to discover it.
Which encounters turned out to be decisive and at what point did you place your two passions –architecture and oceanography – at the service of underwater exploration, science and humanity?
I met Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1956 during the first screening of his documentary The World of Silence. At that point I discovered a universe that was to become the source of a new fascination. Later, I began studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and then did a course at the Paris Institute of Oceanography, before enrolling at the Université d’Urbanisme de Vincennes and the l’Ecole des Arts et Métiers and eventually becoming an architect in 1972 and combining these two areas of interest. I‘ve been incredibly lucky to live at a time in our history when my passions are naturally mingled with the development of humankind.
In the speech you gave when you joined the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France, you said “the architect must sublimate the curiosity and the passion of others”; but prior to transcending that of others, must he not sublimate his own?
Yes of course. That is very important. Passion is key and must be at the heart of every adventure. That is what makes people tick, gives life meaning and instills a sense of pride. It’s the combination of all these ingredients which makes you excel. Every child in the world has a dream and then life, society or certain interactions tend to make you lose sight of it, reformat yourself and finish up by deceiving and betraying your inner nature. So you need to be able to overcome these difficulties and find the strength that propels you onward and enables you to do exceptional things.
Is being able to marvel at the beauty of the world indispensable in imagining and driving new projects?
Yes, but you have to remain clearsighted and not be naïve. There is a beauty about the world that must be appreciated and enhanced, but one shouldn’t forget how hard the same world is. Thanks to my parents, I have always travelled. After Abidjan, I journeyed through the whole of Africa, Asia and America, discovering completely different cultures, the mingling of which compose the beauty of the world that touches me deeply. The ability to invent, to design new technologies are the foundations of human genius but one shouldn’t forget that although man is capable of the finest actions, he also knows how to be a predator and a destroyer. I live in a planetary system in which there are many difficulties: coastal overpopulation, pollution and particularly oil-related pollution, the destruction of coral… However, having taken due note of this, one must move on. Sometimes it is disasters that force you to surpass yourself!
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