architecture student

—-MAISON EDOUARD-FRANÇOIS—-

Édouard François was a french architect born in 1958.

He studied at the “Ecole Nationale does Beaux-arts” in Paris (France), but also at the “Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées”.

François has mainly focused his career on sustainability during more than 15 years, from dealing with a little green facade, to having biggest commissions and expanding to other countries.

He has been recognized with the RIBA International Fellowship in 2011 and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2012.

The building that grows

He has worked over the thematic of green architecture, as we are able to see in most of his projects, as for example the “Tower-flower” or the “Building that grows”.

This building for houses in Montpellier became part of the collections of the Pompidou Centre.

As we already know, Édouard always express his knowledge of sustainability, however, his works also reflect two more related topics, that together form the trends of contemporary society.

One of this topics is the use of local materials.
In this case, he has chosen to combine stone for the main walls ,with wooden “balcony-gardens” that stick out breaking with the symmetry and uniformity of it, and also feel very well integrated with the nature that surrounds them.

Now we go to the second topic, the conservation of the exiting building, where the manipulation and invention of this architect will be introduced.

One of the main objectives of Madison François was to build for the specific time, so he came out with the idea of a living skin.
With sacks of potting soil, small plants, and iron cables he created a small eco-system on the walls, so then it would sprout in order to grow according to the laws of nature.

“The reality kills the idea”
-MAISON EDOUARD FRANÇOIS-

“Architecture is build in our time, if you don’t build in our time it is only construction”
-MAISON EDOUARD FRANÇOIS-

After reading and understanding this architect’s point of view, I totally get his point.

With every work that he presents, he is trying to do something similar as a camera does. When we take a photo, we are capturing the atmosphere, situation and moment of the time in which we are living at the moment.

His interpretation of architecture is that, build an idea in a specific time, taking into account the relation within the building and the environment of the moment, reaching its integration.