ALTA architectes - urbanistes is a team of four architects.
Maxime Le Trionnaire and Gwénaël Le Chapelain, DPLG architects, joined forces in 2010 and took over the reins of ALTA, developing their architectural visions through emblematic projects such as the Tour Amazonie in Nantes (2015) and the Lycée la Providence in Saint-Malo (2022). Strictly speaking, it is not a question of establishing a style, or even a particular style, the materials vary: concrete for a discreet spotlight on a wood-fired boiler room, providential steel, stone, even wood and straw or glass, the material is not an end in itself. On the other hand, there is an overriding concern for use, which can be seen, for example, in the treatment of the external extensions, the concern for structure and the work on the windows and openings.
Fanny Larhantec and Aurélie Morel, two new associate architects, joined the project management team in 2023 after having exercised their talents as project managers within the agency for some ten years.
Today ALTA architectes - urbanistes has a staff of 36 who work on architecture that is resolutely contemporary, contextual and responsive. Each of the architectural responses tends towards its own singularity, respectful of the proposed programme.
‘Each project is an opportunity to work specifically on the context. Our architecture is intended to be directly linked to the sites and situations proposed to us. We seek out the specific features of the site to draw on its urban, natural, historical or sociological environment. This information feeds into the architecture that we create. As the contexts in which we operate are rarely homogeneous, our writing tends to be hybrid. Using a combination of signs (borrowed from environments near and far), we seek to re-read the worlds in which we operate (urban, rural, peripheral). This approach can be defined as a search for writing that is not pastiche, but rooted in a region, a place. We keep the value of the human being as the common thread running through our thinking.’
