DESARZENS François-Xavier Atelier d'architecture Sàrl

Our approach is to seek a synthesis, a balance:

Between integration and innovation:
Each place has its own history, tectonics, orientation, main views, and unique natural or built environment. We want our new intervention to highlight its intrinsic and specific qualities. A dialogue must develop with it.

Between interior and exterior:
We pay close attention to transitions: how to enter, how to exit. For a window, what do we want to see, what framing, what light will it bring? The thickness of the wall becomes a means of creating a new space between interior and exterior.

Between practicality and aesthetics:
The practical, functional aspect is very important. We work carefully on our plans in order to respond optimally to the specific needs of the client. At the same time, we seek in our constructions a "silence," an economy of means, a reduction to the essential, a use of materials and colors conducive to producing "beauty," meaning, perhaps emotions, the very essence of architecture.

Between optimization and generosity:
While working on optimizing surfaces and volumes, we seek generosity of space and a sense of grandeur by developing sequences of spaces that allow one to see a first, second, third space, and so on. A little like a Japanese garden, which, with its vegetation organized in successive layers, gives the impression of being in the middle of a large park despite its small size.

Between sustainable and economical:
Sustainable development in its three aspects (ecological, social, and economic) is at the heart of our concerns in order to create a healthy environment that promotes social ties, with a view to overall economy. The best way to do this is first to limit built surfaces and volumes by optimizing them as much as possible, reducing or eliminating distribution in favor of interconnected spaces. This saves on materials, their embodied energy, and the volumes to be heated. Next, the construction must be efficient in terms of energy and the embodied energy used in its construction.