Everything we design, everything we make, everything in our world is made up of ideas. Architecture, the city, the spaces we inhabit together all begin with an idea. Followed by another. And another. But the world is complex and conflictual and it is difficult to perceive a harmonious collective horizon. Ideas get lost along the way, and often we no longer know why we started or what the question was.
This is the start. The city is the place where we live together : for opportunities, safety, to fulfill a need for social bonds and all the other reasons that make us come together as people. Living together in a particular environment requires a kind of collective organisation that always manifests itself physically, and our urban structures are a reflection of our values and the challenges that our society faces.
We are obsessed with understanding how societies work and how we can design and transform places so that people can live well together within them, so that we can live well together on earth.
It has to do with collective structures, nature, light, air and seasons. It has to do with how well a built structure fits the needs of its inhabitants . It has to do with how a building reacts and fits into an environnemental, geographic, cultural and urban context. It has to do with all of this and it has nothing to do with style.
GRAU is an team of architects with a broad vision that freely positions itself around projects to bring together ideas. We work with design teams on various projects to transform our physical environment : around big buildings (hospitals, sports facilities, logistic centers..), around urban fragments (campuses…), around territories in transition (transforming residential areas, obsolete business parks…).
Stepping aside, our job consists of finding, organizing and sharing ideas. We have been actively involved in the transformation of the city for the last fifteen years. Our view has never been static but in a constantly moving position, inevitably bringing us to the future but also tying us to the past. In the end, it comes down to continuity and connections, to what holds people together in the city.
We believe in collective intelligence gathered around ideas.