Édition 2026
Architecture en Champagne
#Events #Architecture #Lodges #Winemakers
28 February 2026
The Châlons Agglo Tourist Office will host an exhibition in spring 2026 on the Architecture in Champagne event: “When micro-architecture meets the grand landscape.” Photographs, videos, and a large-scale model of the Champagne region, showing the location of all the wine lodges, will allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the creative process during the 13-day workshop, from design to construction. With the 2026 workshop just weeks away, why this exhibition?
A little perspective…
In 2026, the Architecture in Champagne initiative will have (almost) 10 years of experience. This is the perfect opportunity to look back on nearly a decade of collaborative micro-architecture projects linked to the development of wine tourism in Champagne.
Visualizing a unique co-construction project
Architecture in Champagne is a multifaceted project originally launched by the Châlons-en-Champagne metropolitan area in partnership with the Champagne-Ardenne Architecture Center (MACA). It's an adventure that brings together students and young professionals from diverse fields (architecture, design, engineering, construction, tourism, etc.), architects, wine professionals (independents, winegrowers' associations, Champagne houses), and tourism professionals (UNESCO Mission, tourist offices, regional tourism boards), all within a European and even international context.
It is also a challenge of cross-functionality: taking into account the constraints and specific perspectives of each partner, listening, and translating desires and future uses into architectural gestures.
With a diversity of partners and a diversity of Champagne terroirs represented, the lodges evolve while respecting the initial specifications (alignment with the clients' ambitions and the sites, use of reclaimed materials, and increasingly spectacular formats). Photographs and videos reveal the human adventure of the project and the fruitful collaboration at every stage: co-design, but also demanding construction, and sometimes audacious installations on the sites.
Then…
While the annual workshop takes place in Châlons-en-Champagne and includes sessions open to the public, and while the lodges can be visited during walks through the surrounding countryside, it's difficult to get a panoramic view of the installations that dot the Champagne terroirs of the Aube and Marne departments.
Highlighting the Installations in the Champagne Landscapes
The exhibition's clever idea: to house a 2-meter by 1.30-meter topographic model representing Champagne and its terroirs, and including the location of the 34 lodges that were created and installed. Here again, ingenious collaboration is at work: the fab lab, Atelier de bidouille numérique (located at the Centre Jacquesson), designed and created this model with final-year and vocational students from the Oehmichen high school, as well as with students from the Lavoisier elementary school, both schools in Châlons.
Have Some Lodges Disappeared? Micro-architectures are a type of temporary structure. Owners can dismantle them as needed for development projects.
Are some lodges missing from the model? There are indeed renovated older lodges and even new ones built by the winemakers themselves, who appreciate the opportunity to offer tastings in the heart of the vineyards. However, these are not among the lodges created as part of the Architecture in Champagne project.
After the exhibition...
One of the 34 booths is not located in the vineyards: it is the “House of Booths,” the starting and ending point of each edition of the Architecture in Champagne workshop. Situated in the center of Châlons, in the area that initiated and supports the event, on Place Saint-Jean, it allows for an open-air stroll that highlights the Champagne winemaking process and complements the Tourist Office's exhibition.
This exhibition, the first dedicated to the event, is scheduled as a preview to the next workshop, which will take place from April 10 to 23, 2026, at the Jacquesson workshop. The program can be found on the website.
It is designed to travel throughout the Champagne region and will be hosted by partner venues or sites wishing to leverage this unique tourist event.
EXHIBITION “When Micro-Architecture Meets the Grand Landscape”
March 13 to April 10, 2026
Tourist Office, 3 Quai des Arts, 51000 Châlons-en-Champagne
Free admission
Exhibition partners: Lycée Oehmichen, École Lavoisier, L’Atelier de Bidouille Numérique, Les Ateliers de Reims, and Antoine Robinet (cabinetmaker).
Photo : PHG PROD.
