Born in 1932 in Paris, Paul Virilio is a French architect, urbanist and essayist.

He is often presented as “the thinker of speed”. He is mainly known for his writings on technology and speed, the alliance of which constitutes in his eyes a “dromosphere”. After training as a master glassmaker while following the courses of Vladimir Jankélévitch and Raymond Aron at the Sorbonne, he collaborated with Henri Matisse in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and with Georges Braque in Varangéville. In 1963, he founded with Claude Parent, the group Architecture Principe, then published a first manifesto for an oblique architecture. Professor with him at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, they trained in their studio several great names of French contemporary architecture, such as Jean Nouvel.