Floornature

Manuelle Gautrand, bonjour. First of all I'd like to thank you for welcoming us here in your studio in Paris. You have been working as an architect since 1985, how has your approach to architecture changed over the past two decades?

Manuelle Gautrand: When I started twenty years ago, I was very young and the more I am doing architecture, the more my vision is changing because I am getting more and more experienced. So the last two decades are full of different types of stories, with different types of programmes and different types of clients. Some projects may last 5 or 6 years and then some changes have to be made. So everything is always different. Over this period of twenty years, I have acquired much experience and I keep on trying to find something different for each new project. Sometimes I try to do something more ambitious, depending on the client. Sometimes I also get more anxious when going for more ambitious deals and objectives. So in a way twenty years is short but it is also very long.  This period of time allows you to test some ten or twenty projects and each project provides a new experience and enrichment.
The architectural scenario in France provides many opportunities to experiment unconventional architecture through a competition system that is considered a model in Europe. What do you think about it?

Manuelle Gautrand: I am very happy to hear that. Although it may be difficult to compare, it is true that for me the competitions were very precious. At the beginning I did not have any relationships and so for me the opportunity of entering competitions was the only way to get projects. I agree that the French competition system is very easy for young architects; it provides them with good opportunities to get new projects and start their working activities. However, it is not always very clear and it is also very difficult to be selected, especially if you are a young architect. But once selected, of course, you really get the opportunity to win if your project is very good. In other European countries when there are no selections and competitions are open to everyone, it might be easier for young architects to enter new projects.
In 2007 you delivered the C42 building, the new Citroen flagship showroom on the Champs-Élysées, it is a perfect architectural interpretation of a worldwide brand, which were the bases of your project?

Manuelle Gautrand: There were several bases. In the beginning when I began the competition I was not so used to cars, and so I decided to do some research into the story of Citroen. I discovered a fascinating world, with all the designers and the ways they invent concept cars and a lot of things around cars. It is not only about shapes. They have a very precise view of society. When creating a concept car, they are mixing a lot of features of our society, like materials and different topics. I tried to be as ambitious as them for the  and I was very inspired by their ambitious ways to make cars so I wanted the building to be an accurate reflection of that ambitions. I was also very much inspired by toy cars and the idea of little boys playing with toy cars and toy garages. I wanted to give C42 a very kind spirit in connection with toys. In a way I wanted to create a magic place with a smooth touch because Citroen cars are not as nervous as other brands. They work a lot around the ideas of comfort and smoothness. So I wanted to use these aspects of comfort and smoothness and also the magic spirit of childhood games and toys. I also wanted to deeply express the brand using the logo. That is why I decided to include the logo, the double chevron, directly in the façade and to play on that theme all over it. So the façade is a sort of envelope which is fully curved with the logo designed accurately at the bottom of the façade, close to the pavement and the higher up you go, you can find the logo expressed in different ways. This was one of the main ideas, to include the logo deeply in the architectural project and to play with it. Inside the building, like in a game, I decided to create a sort of sculpture; actually it is a huge red tree, like a big shelving system, right in the middle of the place. It actually takes o lot of the space. People just go round it on stairs or gangways, sometimes even in very narrow passage because I wanted the cars to be central. I wanted people to get the feeling of being among cars. The big tree displays eight cars, which are really in the centre of the scene, like a monumental installation.
And the result is a very complex building: which part did technology and materials play?

Manuelle Gautrand: The project was really very complex because the space is actually very small. We wanted to use each volume and devote each square meter to the public and to the cars, not to the technical aspects. This made the project complex because we had to mask every inch of technology, mechanical and engineering systems to give the public the feeling that there was nothing behind. Spaces are very pure, full of white. It was very difficult to hide the technology. Another difficult aspect was the envelope, where we used a "resille" or latticework made of glass and metal profiles. In fact this envelope is structural in that it holds the building together and also makes the building independent from the others on the Champs-Élysées.
You are now working on a showroom and leisure centre in Cairo, what are the main differences between these two projects? ...and also working in two cities that are so different?

Manuelle Gautrand: The Cairo project is completely different and that is the richness of our job. Each project is different. I must say at the beginning, the Cairo project was also to be a showroom dedicated to cars, but then it evolved into something completely different. First because the city is totally different of course. The client is also different because he is an industrial man working with different brands of cars. So the building will not be dedicated to just one car brand but to something like ten or twelve. This is the first difference because it is not possible to think about a building that is dedicated to only one car brand. I have to be more flexible in a way. After seeing the first sketches and models, the client was very enthusiastic. As the project develops, the client wants to include more and more business ideas. So now it is no longer just a showroom but it is a place also dedicated to other commercial activities. There will be a restaurant, cinemas, a discotheque and some luxury shops. So in the end it is more like a very exclusive shopping mall, mixing a lot of various activities. Another difference of course has to do with the city, because Cairo is very polluted, very hot and very windy. One of the initial ideas was to create a building with a very simple outside, very protected against the weather, the wind and the sand. There is a lot of wind carrying sand in this area near Cairo. So I wanted to protect the building from outside. Inside I wanted to create a sculpture which is all in concrete, using the local facilities. So it is a sort of three-dimensional sculpture partly dedicated to the cars, partly to the shops and so on. In a way it is very flexible. When you look at the project you absolutely cannot compare with Citroen and that is a good thing.
There is going to be another important project in Paris: the Tour AVA in La Défence, can you tell us a bit about this project?

Manuelle Gautrand: I think building a tower is really a dream of an architect. When I began the project I was so happy to have this opportunity. So I am very passionate about the project and all the more so because it is in the district of La Défense, which is a very special district in Paris. It is full of modernity, in strong contrast with the centre of Paris, which is like a museum. La Défense is a sort of very modern new city, which is close to Paris but in some way it is also slightly disconnected from Paris. Most buildings were made twenty years ago and now, when you look at the district, there are a lot of problems, like safety and quality of life. Some towers are very old and very much in need of refurbishment at present. Between the 60s and 80s, when this district was first developed, many infrastructures were built in an ambitious way, for example there are a lot of motorways, streets which are like bridges in the middle of the district and in the end it is not really successful. As I said, when you walk around there, the feeling is not one of safety and comfort. Roads and streets are on top of you or connected to you and it is very difficult to link the two levels of pedestrian spaces. Our site for this tower was very interesting because it is right in the middle of all these difficulties. I was given the opportunity to think about new public spaces, about refurbishing a motorway which is actually going through our site. The final project is for a tower that is 140 meters high and 200 meters long. Basically the length is bigger than the height. Of course this makes the project interesting. This is an opportunity for me to think about modernising this place in La Défense, and more generally speaking, of organising connections and links between the various levels of the tower like the lobby and the internal levels and the public spaces around. One difficult aspect of building a tower is to avoid making it too separate from its context. So my objective for this project is to strongly connect the tower with the context and to add a lot of comfortable elements to the public spaces around. So to work in depth in terms of contextual links and public links and so on.
What about the look, I think it is very fashionable?

Manuelle Gautrand: Yes it is, because there are many towers in La Défense that are perhaps out of fashion now. However, this was not so important for me. Often towers only work with curtain walls so they always look the same. I wanted to find something else, using sustainable goals. So we decided to create a sort of "resille" (latticework) made of metal profiles to be used as support for a lot of filters. On the West and South façades, all the filters are used to filter the sunlight, to reduce the sunlight inside the levels. On the North and East façades the aim was exactly the opposite, the filters here are used to maximise the natural sunlight inside the levels. The intention here was to play with these filters and create a lot of reflections and let more sunlight in. That way the resille is crucial as filter support and to work with sustainable goals and to minimise the energy requirements and also to give the tower a different aspect. The colour is special too; it is gilded and creates a lot of reflections. The design itself of the resille is very special and is based on rhomb shapes so it is a sort of graphic design. There is a strong continuity between the graphic design and the tower itself and the ground floor spaces. There are three levels which are outside the tower and which are dedicated to all the common facilities like restaurants, cafés, plaza, etc. The graphic design of the resille is needed everywhere to filter the sunlight. A special shape recurs to express the fluidity of the architecture, the link between the tower and the common spaces on the ground floor. Another function of the resille here is to envelop the motorway which is passing through the site. In the end the site is completely changed. People walking along the streets can no longer see the motorway. I believe the intention was to really enhance this site, to hide the motorway and to give the district a completely different look.
The picture on your website sees you with a construction helmet, it looks like a manifesto, so my last question is: do you think a woman must be a warrior if she wants to deal with the construction business?

Manuelle Gautrand: I think we always have to fight at some point. Of course the construction business is very difficult but I think it is as difficult for a woman as it is for a man. There are always very complex stages. We work with constructors, clients and engineers and an architect is always in the middle of all these relationships. We have to stick to our objectives and this is very difficult because meanwhile the building is going up. We do not always share the same goals with the constructor though of course we do with the client. At times relations with the constructor are more difficult because of financial questions and technical issues and we have to be warriors but I think it is the same for men.  The study phase is also a complex one. I think it is a job in which if you want to keep our goal and keep the strength and purity of the project and original sketches, you have to be warriors all the time, from beginning to end. But we can do that with pleasure. paragrafoparagrafoparagrafoparagrafoparagrafoparagrafo