Jacques Lucan. Photo: Bruno Levy / Le Moniteur

The French architect, professor, and historian Jacques Lucan died on 8 October, leaving a body of work characterized by the link he maintaned between professional practice and academic reflection. He wanted to do history and theory ‘from the drawing board,’ and made his devotion to teaching and writing compatible with his commitment to execute projects, especially for housing, in the office he shared with his wife, Odile Seyler. Editor-in-chief of the magazine AMC from 1977 to 1988, in 1987 he directed the Pompidou’s encyclopedia on Le Corbusier for his centenary, and in 1990 he oversaw Electa’s book on Rem Koolhaas; two references that have a major presence in Lucan’s later work. He taught at Paris-Belleville until 1998, when he joined the school at Marne-la-Vallée and began his fertile tenure at the EPF of Lausanne, in the context of which he would publish his most important volumes – Composition, non-composition (2009), Précisions sur un état présent de l’architecture (2015), and Habiter (2020) – and also directed the magazine Matières, a post which enabled him to introduce themes he would then crystallize in books. Arquitectura Viva 70 used him as canonical author on Koolhaas and reviewed titles of his in issues 143 and 195. For their part, AV 67 (‘Housing Improved’) closed with an essay by Lucan and AV 89 (‘Swiss Matter’) opened with him and Martin Steinmann conversing about architecture in the country where his research found the best breeding ground, in dialogue with Roberto Gargiani, Luca Ortelli, Jacques Gubler, or Bruno Marchand, never in the process ceasing to keep up the connection between theory and design.