Nicolas Laisné
Nicolas Laisné belongs to that young generation of architects who have learned to adapt to all situations – to the constraints of a project, the context in which it is situated and the diversity of those involved. From his studies at the École d’Architecture de la Ville et des Territoires de Marne-La-Vallée, he took away a firm belief in the fundamental role of the architect in town planning. From his collaboration with Jean Nouvel and then Steven Holl, he picked up flexibility, the sense of engagement with space, competitive spirit and international teamwork, which the Nicolas Laisné* Architecte agency now reflects.
To forge a link, resonate with the location and evoke the particular spirit of each town, for which the architect professes his love: this is the sole aim of buildings created by the agency established in 2003 by Nicolas Laisné. Whether it concerns a hotel in the Latvian forest, a tower paying tribute to the port of Rotterdam or a media library embedded in a village square in the urban area of Lyon, they all interact with their environment, without clashing or getting mixed up with it. Their structures use the existing town layout or landscape, strengthening its cohesion and breathing new life into it by extending its perspectives. So with Taichung Tower and its entangled mirrors their intention is to reflect the place where they are working.
There is, however, nothing consensual in this inventive work that extols total freedom, surprise, modernity and contrast. With façades striated with untreated timber or clad in stainless steel, the offsetting of shapes, the emergence of sliding shutters or shade screens, the overlapping of detachable components..., the buildings of Nicolas Laisné* Architecte have substance and are as one with their material. Without aspiring to the monumental, however, their constructions play on lightness with the suspension of gardens and structures; they reveal themselves so that they can be gradually understood; they are vibrant, they are alive, from one viewpoint to another and from scale to scale.
Nicolas Laisné* Architecte is therefore far from addressing the revolution in energy efficiency with austerity. Its credo: hedonism, syncretism and creativity. Constructing more energy-saving buildings does not just involve incorporating new techniques for the agency: it is about knowing how to go back to the roots of traditional architecture to extract all its ancestral wisdom. Natural ventilation and air conditioning systems are also favoured, in the image of the Spire Tech building in New Delhi, a veiled reference in red sandstone to Raj Rewal, with whom Nicolas Laisné has also worked, or the mixed-use Taichung Tower in Taiwan, whose hollow shape captures the sun and the prevailing winds at every point.
Each time it is a matter for Nicolas Laisné* Architecte of reinventing comfort and the quality of life. Generous with space, inside as well as outside, it is town planning that allows you to breathe – such as those views to the sky afforded to residents in the black building of the rue Rebière in Paris (17th district), whose superimposition of offset plates gives every floor the impression of living "on the top floor".
Above all, it is the inhabitant who takes precedence in the work of Nicolas Laisné. Each building offers the individual their own particular world, bubbles of intimacy and well-being, rooms that are the best possible match for their purpose without cutting themselves off from communal living. Creating exceptions that prove the rule – the genius of location. This is fundamentally the ambition that drives the Nicolas Laisné* Architecte agency.