I’m in my studio in Paris, looking through the research and drawings I did when I wrote my graphic novel L’Aimant. I keep folders with all the documents I rely on for my books—in this case, it’s mostly photographs of the Therme Vals baths in Switzerland designed by Peter Zumthor. It’s perhaps one of the most photographed contemporary buildings. 

I first visited the Therme Vals when I was 13 or 14. My parents are architects and our vacations were often spent visiting famous buildings, but it was the baths that made the greatest impression on me. They are set high in the mountains and often surrounded by snow—it feels romantic. 

Years later, when I chose the baths as the setting for L’Aimant, I worked from hundreds of photos, books and videos, as well as a 3D model that you could walk through, like in a video game. It was the first graphic novel I wrote, and it shaped my whole way of approaching storytelling. I usually have a vague idea of the story, but I choose the setting before the characters or the plot, because the setting gives the story its tone and suggests scenes and structure. Therme Vals became the engine of L’Aimant; it was a kind of theater where all I had to do was place the characters.

I believe deeply that architecture is not just a space we pass through; places affect us, sometimes powerfully. Therme Vals combines something esoteric and fantastic with something extremely modern, and so I chose to write about a Parisian architecture student who decides to focus on the baths for his thesis. As he studies the place, he slowly becomes obsessed; the building unbalances him, draws him in and keeps him from moving forward in his life. He eventually travels to Vals, where he discovers that he has a kind of resonance with the stone walls, as if he were magnetized by the place, and that his very presence has an impact on the building itself.