Joining forces for good

AB: There are many architectural practices in France. Most offices have around one or two people, like us at asné architecture. This seems pretty typical in France, with many architects working independently across small practices. I think the ideal studio size is between five and ten people, but not more. Once you go beyond that, you're forced to take on really big projects, which means you have to organise your practice completely differently. With a practice of over ten employees, you have financial obligations, and the way of doing architecture changes entirely. With bigger projects, you tend to focus less on the details, especially if you're working on hundreds of square meters. That’s not how I want to develop my practice. I’m more about being picky and paying attention to details. There's definitely a benefit to keeping a small team in the office.

In France, you need to build your portfolio—and get clients—through public competitions, which require reference projects. If you want to work in the public sector, you have to team up with practices that already have those references. That’s why it’s common to collaborate with other offices, especially for certain types of projects. For example, we’ve collaborated with a bigger English practice that needed our help in the French market, and we’ve done the same with a Spanish one. It’s interesting to partner up like that, especially across Europe. Even with smaller French practices, it’s about combining forces, so we’re a team of four to six people. For competitions, that works pretty well. But, in my experience, it’s not always easy to collaborate with bigger offices. It’s a creative way of thinking about architecture, so you have to really understand each other and figure out how to work together. It’s not something that just clicks right away. It takes time to build that relationship, and we don’t always have that luxury before starting a collaboration. 

This connects to my experience at Échelle Un, an architecture incubator from ENSA Paris-Est that I joined a few years ago. It was a valuable opportunity because we had time over the year to get to know each other and understand each other’s methods and processes. That kind of foundation makes a real difference.

Accidental beginnings

AB: I started out studying physics and mathematics. I was originally focused on engineering, so I did a double course in engineering and architecture. Architecture kind of happened by accident. I discovered architecture when I was already in civil engineering school. I ended up doing an internship at an architectural practice in Paris, and the interesting part of that story is that I was sketching details of tiles for a mock-up in a building. I sent my sketch to the contractor, and when I visited the site, I saw my sketch turned into a real-life detail. It was a really cool feeling, and that’s when I decided to continue with architecture. So, I did a double course for three years, then finished two more years to get my engineering degree. During my master’s, I worked part-time in a façade engineering office, which gave me the opportunity to work on some pretty big projects. I developed a lot of the details for the façades, which sparked a real interest in that part of architecture. It’s had a huge influence on how I approach my work now.

In facade engineering, it’s all about translating big architectural ideas into practical, buildable solutions. For example, if someone wants a transparent facade, you need to figure out how to design it, how thick the glass should be, and how to structure it. It’s all about turning ideas into real details. That’s something that still impacts how we work in our practice. We have a big library of facade details, materials, and other aspects of design that we keep referring to, which comes directly from my experience as a facade engineer.

Looking back at my career, I’ve been practicing architecture for 12 years now. I got my degree in 2011 and my master's in 2017. It’s been a long and valuable process that led me to start my own practice. The original idea was to start asné with a friend, but after a few years, he decided to launch his own company with his girlfriend, so I let go of that idea. After COVID-19, in 2020, I felt ready to go for it. I had enough experience from working as an employee and as an engineer, and I had even taken courses on how to manage a company. It felt like the right time, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal due to the uncertainty brought by the pandemic. I began in Paris and stayed there for a while, but after a year, I decided to move to Bordeaux. It’s been three years now, and things are going pretty well.

A practice of transformation

AB: One of my first projects was with a former client from when I was working in Paris. I worked on a high-end luxury hotel near Paris for about a year and a half, and even after the project ended, I stayed in touch with them. When I started asné architecture, I let them know. They remembered me and asked if I wanted to work on a smaller project—renovating a castle near Paris. It was a heritage-listed building, so I had to work with local civil servants dedicated to heritage protection. That ended up being my first project, which was pretty big for starting out. We also worked on smaller flat renovations, so I was combining a mix of scales and typologies.

Then, in 2022, we collaborated with an English practice on car dealership renovations in France. We focused on technical buildings, doing things like due diligence and small renovations. Now, we’re working on more public buildings. For example, we’re developing a project for a technical centre in Dordogne and have just won a competition with the French Ministry of Culture to design a small museum in a classified area.

The variety of projects has been massive—from castles to car dealerships to public facilities and small flats. The common thread, though, is that 99% of our work is focused on renovations and rehabilitation. We often transform existing buildings into something new, which is at the heart of our philosophy. The castle project was a major milestone for us. It wasn’t just a castle—it also involved renovating a sanatorium and an orangery. It gave me the chance to study and work on a unique set of buildings, each with its own specificities.

Material experimentation

AB: Even though I wouldn’t say we follow a strict methodology, there are a few recurring principles we focus on. First, we combine analogue and digital approaches. I sketch a lot by hand, and we share these sketches with clients early in the process. It’s a way to communicate ideas and get feedback from them, but also sometimes to ‘sell’ the concept, since clients often expect architects to be creative. Presenting a Revit model is fine, but it’s not always the most engaging way to sell an idea.

We’re also very focused on materials, which comes from my background as a facade engineer. I care a lot about developing details and showcasing raw materials over processed ones. We’ve developed a physical library of materials in the office, which isn’t just for show but serves as a practical resource to understand how to combine them on site. It’s a big part of our process. A concrete example of this is our experimentation with upcycled terrazzo. When we start a project, we look for materials on site that would otherwise be thrown away—like old tiles—and we break them down to create something new. It’s part of our approach to sustainability—taking materials that would go to waste and turning them into something useful for the project.

We’ve also worked on a project involving rammed dry concrete, where we mixed some aggregate with less cement than normal to create a more sustainable, earth-like material. It was for the entrance to the Stade Pele, a public sports facility in Paris. We wanted to match the surrounding context, which included social housing with a brick facade. We used this new concrete mix to resonate with the surrounding environment. This project came about after a public competition with Semapa, and while we didn’t propose a design at first, we were appointed as laureates and then had the chance to present our proposal. We initially had a rammed earth structure in mind, but due to timing issues with the Olympics, we had to adapt the design and switch to rammed dry concrete.

Material experimentation is a big part of our design process. While it’s not the centre of the project, it plays a significant role in creating the identity of the design. We’re working with a wide range of materials, trying to minimise the carbon footprint. For this particular project, the dry concrete uses less cement and water, which makes it more sustainable. We’re also using cob, a natural earth material, for some elements in a protected archaeological site.

Building forward

AB: Besides Paris, we also have a few ongoing projects in Bordeaux. We’ve just completed a vertical extension of a small stone house, a typical local typology known as an 'échoppe'. We added a new story with a wooden structure, but the interesting part is how we thought about the structure evolving over time. The house was for a single family, and we imagined how the structure could evolve in, say, 20 years. We developed a simple plan for the upper floor, but we also preemptively hid electrical wires and other things in the walls so we could add a new room without making major changes in the future. 

One of our latest projects is particularly interesting as it involves transforming a brownfield site into ecotourism facilities. Located along the river, the site was once home to river-related activities. We’re converting the wasteland into small buildings, including a museum for heritage boats. The entire area is being renovated in collaboration with a large team, including landscape architects, and the project is commissioned by Grand Cognac, one of the regional stakeholders. We're still in the early stages—it’s just a draft for now.

We’re going through an exciting phase right now. We’ve just completed our new office, where we also designed all the furniture, including a large library along the left wall as you enter. As I mentioned, the materials library is extremely important to us—this space will hold all the samples and resources we use to develop our projects. Earlier this year, I expanded the team with my first official employee, which is a big milestone for a small practice like mine. We're also looking to build new partnerships for larger competitions, which is one of the reasons we’re involved in programs like Échelle Un. 

Looking ahead, next year I’d like to stabilise the office and grow a bit more. My goal is to hire another collaborator and possibly develop side ventures related to engineering—like tools for calculating facade plates or addressing thermal performance issues—things I’ve always been interested in exploring further. I used to calculate them myself when I was a facade engineer. It feels like a natural evolution, slowly building the tools and team we need to take the practice to the next level.