780 leftover baguettes turn into public pavilion by MERO studios in montpellier

MERO Studios’ Paysage De Pain reflects on themes of food waste

Paysage de Pain is a public installation built from 780 salvaged baguettes, designed by MERO Studios in collaboration with the Montpellier-based nonprofit Pain de L’Espoir. Set in a sunlit courtyard in the Hôtel de Lunas during the 2025 Festival des Architectures Vives in Montpellier, the pavilion explores the potential of food waste, specifically surplus bread, as a spatial and sensory material.

In France, bread is essential to daily life, yet its abundance often leads to waste. According to a 2018 study by ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency), 11% of bread from bakeries is rejected for sale. Of this unsold bread, 15% is donated, 25% repurposed as animal feed, and 60% destroyed. Paysage de Pain transforms this symbol of waste into an immersive architectural experience. The installation explores gluttony not as excess, but as a lens for sustainable reinvention. 

all images by Paul Kozlowski

Public pavilion repurposes hundreds of leftover baguettes

The installation invites visitors to reflect on themes of gluttony and excess. The structure is a dialogue between indulgence and the urgency of environmental responsibility. Visitors are invited to move through dough-scented walls that cracked and aged in the summer heat, highlighting the tension between nourishment and discard. The project, developed by MERO Studios’ designers, foregrounds food waste as a cultural issue, transforming urban excess into a sensory, temporal monument. Here, gluttony becomes a celebration of transformation, an architectural delicacy that invites exploration and reflection on how we consume, discard, and create. In the spirit of the festival, Paysage de Pain is not only a feast for the senses but also a call to savor resources with care and ingenuity.

780 salvaged baguettes form the core structure of Paysage de Pain

a spatial installation exploring bread waste as architectural material

installed in the courtyard of Hôtel de Lunas for the 2025 Festival des Architectures Vives

Paysage de Pain responds to food waste through material reuse

bread walls crack and age under summer heat, revealing natural decay

bread becomes both material and message in this public installation

an ephemeral structure shaped by food, heat, scent, and time

bread waste is transformed into a tactile and temporal monument

the installation encourages reflection on how we consume and discard

Paysage de Pain reimagines gluttony as a site of transformation

project info:

name: Paysage De Pain
designer: MERO Studios | @mero_studios

lead designers: Megan Dang, Rose Zhang
location: Montpellier, France

photographer: Paul Kozlowski | @photoarchitecture.co

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom