Team | Maxime Barbier | Bernard Cabannes | Luc Delamain | François Gillard | Michel Macary | Aymeric Zublena
Maxime Barbier, Bernard Cabannes, Luc Delamain and François Gillard are the architects of SCAU, which counts among France’s largest architectural practices. A generic term standing for Société de Conception d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme (society for the conception of architecture and urban planning), SCAU was founded in 1971 by Michel Macary and Aymeric Zublena.
The practice falls within a spirit of polyvalence, working in numerous fields from cultural facilities, stadiums, hospitals, universities, accommodation, hotels, offices, commercial premises, infrastructure and urban planning to design and interior decoration. SCAU favours transversal exchanges thanks to its numerous architects, engineers and graphic designers, with multiple skills and of different nationalities.
Through its projects, SCAU practises and asserts diversity without fixed a prioris. The firm’s projects do not respond to a style but to endlessly changing situations. Starting from a subtle analysis of the geographical and social territory, the practice unveils the riches of the places where it intervenes and adapts to contemporary lifestyles. SCAU also feeds on multicultural influences and constantly evolving communication technologies, which bring about new forms or spatial organisation.
Environmental questions have always been at the heart of the practice's concerns and considered as a fundamental civic responsibility. The pratice’s environmental approach is founded on the analysis of all the aspects of a context to be able to make decisions. The environmental performance of a project often stems from simple, long-established techniques rather that technological systems doomed to obsolescence. SCAU benefits from a recognised experience in several fields, built up in Europe and enriched by experiences in Asia and the Middle East.
After the Stade de France, the Grand Louvre and the Hôpital Georges Pompidou in Paris, the practice has devoted itself to creating new emblematic projects.
“To make each project a clear answer to complex situations is one of the major stakes of our conception process. To preserve a creative regard from the sketch right up to the completion of the project is our challenge to time, the major constraint in the act of building.”
Through this perpetual quest, SCAU makes its mark on the urban landscape and proposes a singular vision of architecture.
