Care in Architecture and Design: A Talk at Atlanta Design Festival

WHERE: Atlanta Design Festival – Creative Futures Conference. Fourth Ward Offices (Tower 2) | 505 N Angier Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

WHEN: September 27, 10:30–11:15 a.m.

In 2023, architects and designers Aurélia Martin and Mathilde Van Steenkiste founded Les Grandes, a Paris-based studio dedicated to issues at the intersection of architecture, disability, and mental health. Their practice combines research, experimentation, and design to rethink how spaces can care for both their occupants and their environments, contributing to a more inclusive society.

As part of the Atlanta Design Festival’s Creative Futures Conference, Martin and Van Steenkiste will present their talk “Care in Architecture and Design: From the Circular Economy to Disability.” Drawing on projects developed in France and abroad, they will discuss their approach as practitioners committed to integrating care into architectural thinking.

Their transatlantic exploration began in 2024, when they spent three months in the United States studying innovative models of senior housing through the AIA’s Delano & Aldrich/Emerson grant. This research will culminate in a book and exhibition planned for 2026.

In 2025, the duo returns to the U.S. as Villa Albertine Atlanta residents with Quilt and Care, a project at the crossroads of healthcare research, textile design, and autism studies. During their October residency, they will collaborate with local partners to imagine how fabrics and designed objects can become tools for care and connection.

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This event is part of the programming of the season France-Atlanta 2025.

The story began in May 2023, when French saxophonist and composer Raphaël Imbert embarked on a Villa Albertine residency in the United States. His project, Music is My Field, set out to explore the rich musical traditions of the Southeast and Appalachia. It was in Atlanta that Imbert first connected with saxophonist Kebbi Williams and his collective, Reverence, during the city’s Music in the Park festival.That encounter sparked a transatlantic artistic exchange. Imbert invited Williams to perform at the J.E.S.T. Festival in Marseille in November 2023, and later at the Marseille Jazz des Cinq Continents festival in July 2024. The collaboration deepened in November 2024, when Imbert came back to Atlanta. Alongside Marseille-based musicians T.I.E. (electronics) and Blanche Lafuente (drums), he traveled to Atlanta to co-create a new piece with Williams, Zacchaeus Paul, and Daniel Wytanis. The result was a powerful performance at Music in the Park on November 17, 2024.Nydia Blas and Joshua Dudley Greer’s residencies aim to narrate the city of Marseille and its complexities, offering, in resonance with French photographers Geoffroy Mathieu and Yohanne Lamoulère’s explorations of Atlanta, a perspective on two cities through the lens of communities and urban landscapes.

Aurélia Martin

Designer

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Aurélia Martin is a multidisciplinary designer based in Paris.
She practices an engaged, playful, and colorful form of design. Aurélia specializes in textile design, set design, and service design within the fields of culture and care. Since 2019, she has taught in master’s programs in design and innovation, driven by her belief that culture and education are inseparable. Her projects are carried out with local partners in the cultural and healthcare sectors, as well as with international projects in the DRC, Kosovo, Sweden, China, and beyond.

Mathilde Van Steenkiste

Architect

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Mathilde Van Steenkiste is an architect based in Paris who specializes in the connection between the environment and autism as applied to architecture. She designed Notre Café, Marais in Paris, an innovative project that takes care of young people with autism. She primarily works with the nonprofit and medical-social sectors.