Georges Descombes, head of the landscape department at the Institute of Architecture and a landscape architect known for his rigorous and determined work, good-naturedly made fun of us French: “You, the French, have theorized impotence.”

Indeed, playing the game of traces and signs does not all by itself respond to contemporary needs and challenges.

Historian of architecture and urbanism André Corboz convinces us that we have entered a cycle of conservation rather than a period of phases of invention. In evaluating this fascination for the trace that threatens to academically bury us, I proceed with doubt, but without full renunciation.