Maxime Faure Portfolio

Maxime Faure Academic and Professional Architecture and Urban Design projects

Harvard University Graduate School of Design École Spéciale d’Architecture University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning Wilmotte & Asscociés Moshe Safdie & Associates Atelier Christian de Portzamparc Studios Architecture Gensler

Maxime Faure mxm.faure@gmail.com French Citizenship

ACADEMIC TOWARD A NEW DISTRIBUTIVE FABRIC Sao Paulo, Brazil.

FROM THE GARMENT DISTRICT TO BUSH TERMINAL New York City, USA. THE W Boston, USA. IMAGE, IMAGINAIRE ET DETAIL EN ARCHITECTURE Paris, France.

ARENA 92 Nanterre, France.

CZECH NATIONAL LIBRARY Prague, Czech Republic.

ADIRONDACK REINTERPRETATION Cincinnati, USA. RESEARCH & WORKSHOPS Pôle K Kayakoy, Turkey.

Meeting in the steppe Bayanchandmani, Mongolia.

PROFESSIONAL Moshe Safdie and Associates Somerville, MA, USA. Atelier Christian de Portzamparc Paris, France.

Studios Architecture Washington, DC, USA. Gensler Chicago, IL, USA.

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Academic

Toward a New Distributive Fabric.

Harvard GSD. Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Spring 2017 With Konstantina Tzemou Felipe Correa as instructor Publication and award GSD Platform X Received with Distinctions

The project investigates how the re-organization of mobility infrastructure may reactivate public realm and provide new types of urban life within the city of Sao Paulo. In a metropolitan context highly segregated by private mobility, the project explores ways to rescale infrastructure and increase the capacity of mass transit so as to release the urban core from its service nature. A new distributive fabric is thus formed by manipulating the inherent urban grids. This new fabric allows for the rebalancing of congestion within the metropolis and at the same time defines a new scale for the aggregation of urban blocks. In the 21st century post-industrial metropolis, the urban block has a dual identity. At the city scale, it defines a new centrality by accommodating multiple ownership and a plurality of programs, domestic and collective unit types. At the metropolitan scale, it provides a shared landscape amenity through the integration of infrastructure within a calibrated urban system.

While featuring a variety of uses and lifestyles, the type of domesticity here proposed is one that combines the private and intimate space of the housing module with collective spaces, expressions of the idea of a shared economy at the intersection of public and private investment. In an effort to generate mixuse and mix-income housing standards that respond to the contemporary needs of a metropolis like Sao Paulo, the project finds ways to challenge the United Nations standards of 80m2 for a family of four. By combining living with productive space, the whole economy of domesticity is alternatively defined. At the same time, the typologies look to take advantage of Brazil’s climate by introducing cross-ventilation and intermediate, semiopen, spaces of collective expression. Therefore, the continuous transition between, the private apartment unit, the intermediate, common space as well as the congested, public ground, is the way we propose that the new urban block will operate as a plural whole.

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In Sao Paulo’s city center, the impact of private mobility is omnipresent with various heavy infrastructure elements fragmenting the urban fabric.

In order to reactivate public realm at the center of Sao Paulo and to reshape the domestic lifestyles it provides, the project’s first aim is to recalibrate the urban grid. There is a possibility to carefully readjust the existing fabric in order to reduce the presence of massive infrastructure dedicated to private mobility and at the same time, decrease congestion.

A new distributive fabric allows the city center to redefine its urban blocks and to reincorporate pedestrian flows in its core. Therefore, the ground is set for the definition of new modes of domestic life, starting at the metropolitan scale.

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A new ground for the integration of infrastructure corridors: canal and railway.

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A new, shared, public amenity: A recreation corridor along the canal.

Continuous transition between soft and hard surfaces.

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Limited car circulation within the interior of the block.

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A network of pedestrian flows.

Intersection with shared amenities.

Differentiation between the public recreation corridor along the canal and the more private, open space distributing to the housing entry points.

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There are two main housing typologies proposed; the typology promoting a dense, urban lifestyle, concentrated at the edges of the new block formation and the typology proposing a lifestyle in close relationship with the shared, public amenity at the center of the urban block.

In both cases, those typologies introduce revenue generating uses merged within housing. These can be collective spaces such as co-working spaces that generate income for the maintenance of public amenities.

Canal Typology

Railway Typology

The canal, from infrastructure to public amenity (AA)

A new topography to activate the urban block (BB)

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Academic

From the Garment District to Bush Terminal.

Harvard GSD. New York City, USA. Fall 2016 With Alexander Yuen Felipe Correa as instructor Publication and talk Nominated for GSD Platform X CFDA Education Summit 2017

This project posits that the infusion of residential and mixed use/ light industrial program into the Bush Terminal site could be achieved through the establishment of a row of singular architectures along the waterfront. This edge then unfolds into the existing urban fabric through more tactical renovations and reuses. By combining the cluster economic theory and the vertical integration of residences and mixed use spaces, a neighborhood is transformed into a district that hosts a creative culture and the housing and amenities necessary to create urban life that does not rely on the garment industry.

The project points out that the typology that is necessary for light industrial program is already latent in the site and can accommodate residential space through vertical expansion. This necessary separation of industry from residence in the Z-axis aligns each program with their most favorable plane: the ground and all of its roads, staging areas, and infrastructural connections for the garment driven program and open air and views for residences. Public access to both the more privatized residential and light industrial planes serves as a necessary mixing point for the populations of both programs.

In fact, only through a productive relationship between residential, industrial, and public uses can the project achieve financial and urbanistic success.

Bush Terminal’s identity was at one point defined by its coastline.

As maritime based industry relocated to other parts of the city and region, the piers that defined the areas wet edge disappeared.

The new development inverts the historic linearity of the piers to architecturalize a series of connections between the waterfront and sunset park.

The density required to instill creativity and innovation does not necessitate verticality. Neither does the opportunity presented by an undeveloped waterfront. A prime example of this argument is Brooklyn itself.

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Left, Catalogue of interventions on the existing fabric.

The 21st century fashion district will be defined by its capacity to connect, adapt, and evolve to cultural and industrial changes.

The district, like fashion itself, must be open to the influences of society but also have the ability to advance society’s needs and desires.

The district must be able to simultaneously accommodate fantasy and industrial reality to create a physical identity for an industry that is propelled by individuality.

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Waterfront condominiums

Existing warehouses as public space Creation of housing

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From residual space in the existing fabric to public amenity

Multipurpose atrium

Waterfront Elevation (AA)

Education Block Section (BB)

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Academic

The W Development.

Harvard GSD. Boston, USA. Spring 2017 With Van-Tuong Nguyen and Carla Wijaya Bing Wang and David Gamble as instructors Publication and award Nominated for GSD Platform X Plimpton Poorvu Prize, 2nd

The proposed W mixed-use housing development on Boston’s North End waterfront bridges old and new communities in the city’s densest historic neighborhood. It provides housing for an increasingly transient population—including young newcomers and single householders. It repurposes land in a landscarce neighborhood to create an urban park connection to and across the waterfront.

The parcel, currently owned by the United States Government and occupied by the United States Coast Guard, presents an opportunity to transform a disruption in the urban experience of the harbor walk to a public amenity. Through the United States General Services Administration (USGSA) land disposition strategy, the parcel may be reinvested for a higher and better use; the existing outfit may be relocated and consolidated with the sister location on the East Boston waterfront.

In return for the land subsidy, the W development provides a more urban and resilient waterfront design that would alleviate the housing shortage in the North End and provide an accessible platform of neighborhood vitality. The W breathes fresh life into the North End, providing neighborhood amenities in addition to micro-housing rental units, for-sale condominiums, restaurants, and retail—all united on an urban park that increases the value of the site.

The financial strategy takes advantage of housing and entitlement subsidies and is supplemented by condominium and parking structure sales. Our financial analysis illustrates that the project’s feasibility largely depends on the land cost—that while a conventional unsubsidized development yields fair returns, a subsidized public-private model yields both better financial returns and higher net public value.

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Structural Parking 241 000 SF, 490 Spaces.

Total Cost: $16.9M. 15% of TDC. Micro Units 86 400 SF, 228 Units.

Total Cost: $21M. 20% of TDC. Condominiums 90 000 SF, 80 Units.

Total Cost: $27M. 24% of TDC.

Surface Parking 23 100 SF, 66 Units.

Total Cost: $176 480.

0,4% of TDC. Grocery 25 200 SF. Total Cost: $3.78M. 3,5% of TDC.

Landscaping 28 000 SF. Total Cost: $2.24M. 2% of TDC. Water Taxi Stop

Academic

Image, imaginaire et détail en Architecture.

Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

Paris, France.

Spring 2014 Directed by Lina Ghotmeh and Chris Younès Award Master of Architecture’s Thesis Project Received with Distinctions and Mention Exposable

More than ever, images seem to be more important than architecture and its physical experience. We can observe this phenomenon through various places, where literal translation and representation are the key elements of an architecture.

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) is one of these places.

There, three very independent units represent strong images: four towers, a closed garden, and a plinth. They represent open books, a forest and the idea of institution, respectively. The architecture stands irreversible. It can only be contemplated and can not be experienced or appreciated by either body or mind. The way we use this architecture becomes an unwanted ritual, an expected journey. We go from figure to figure, with no understanding of what links one to the other. This evokes several questions: how can this ritual become attractive ? What can make it a full experience ? How can we augment or alter the original intentions of the project ?

This project follows a thesis, where the fact that images can provoke imagination was highlighted. Would the three figures of the BnF be able to generate imagination ? It is impossible as it is today. So, how can imagination be infused in the project ?

Two main ideas are used in order to introduce imagination in this frozen architecture and, as a result, change its status.

One method is conceptual : distort the image of each figure to divide the site scale; the other method is answering the site and context issues by creating a network of piazzas to define a new unifying place for the XIIIth district.

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The BNF, part of an archipelago of independant architectures

Linking the BNF and Bercy park

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Housing Commercial Educationnal Cultural Corporate Rail infrastructure

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Studies to create a clear limit

Plinth extension as piazza’s boundaries.

Referring to the Louvre’s cour Carrée.

Orientation toward the park and scale division

Creation of a U shape organization oriented toward Bercy.

Referring to Trocadéro piazza and to Versailles.

Mixing elements

Visually mixing plinth, towers and gardens. Creation of a promenade organized along a network of piazzas.

Referring to the Palais Royal garden.

The site today Unframed

Defining a clear limit Extending the plinth

AA section

Orienting toward the park Creating a promenade

Scaling down the site Project adapted to prorgram and context

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The project seeks to give a human scale to the BnF site in order to give to the esplanade the opportunity to be a central place where people live.

To do so, the first step was to modify the different units composing the BnF’s architecture.

Modifying the plinth image, mixing it with the tower and garden ones allows to create interstices, to break points of view, to create new ones where the program can be extended.

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A central place BnF’s esplanade is linking both XIIth and XIIIth districts of Paris. The original enormous space is now divided in several courtyards, terraces and belvederes working as an extension of their surrounding added programs. New reading rooms stretch themselves to break in relaxation courtyards.

The exhibition gallery becomes a sculptures garden and the FabLab offers a belvedere where are tested and shown the latest prototypes.

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Academic

Arena 92.

Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

Nanterre, France.

Fall 2010 With Maïlys Meyer Hugh Dutton as instructor Publication Revue Spéciale #6

The project is grounded on the Arena 92 stadium competition brief in the business district of Paris, la Défense, and along the city’s historic axis. People only go to this area to work and leave once the task is accomplished. This is why paths are only direct, from point A to point B. In our project, we went against this phenomenon in order to give a certain vivacity to the neighborhood.

Paths were used as the main tool to generate the project. Based on flow and circulation analysis during both special events and daily routines, we have added to the original program a system of footbridges and slabs where users’ routes are random and not oriented to a particular destination. Those places dedicated to the promenade are punctuated by various types of program: cafés, stages, or informal meeting points.

Our project goes beyond the idea of a stadium as an event space. It wants to make the arena a new life center for the neighborhood and its inhabitants. To be fully integrated to the city, the stadium’s paths and footbridges are directly rooted along the historical axis. All circulation meets in a large esplanade. Composed with several green spaces, meeting points and relaxation spots, this piazza is the heart of the project, always open to life and people.

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Circulation studies Footbridges are generated from a flow analysis during daytime and event time on groundfloor and 4th floor.

Resulting paths Resulting circulations are developped into every levels. They are rooted in every corner of the site.

Adding program CafĂŠs, piazzas, stages and gathering spaces are added to the 30 000 sqm office program and punctuate the promenade.

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Continuity of the Parisian historical axis

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The stadium structure is composed by different cross-beams where a removable roof is inserted.

Bleachers are oriented in a U shape, opening on a large esplanade along the historic axis.

This place becomes the heart of the project.

AA section

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Academic

Czech National Library.

Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

Prague, Czech Republic.

Spring 2011 With Maïlys Meyer Matteo Cainer as instructor

The project is based on the Czech Republic National Library competition brief and located in the historic part of Prague, nearby the Powder Tower and the Municipal House.

The project is generated by two main ideas and elements. First, this design asserts that a library should be a central place in the city, where everyone can find the spot that suits him or her to read a book with pleasure. Second, this design focuses on a cultural and atmospherical analysis of the Czech Republic, of Prague, and of the site. Walking in the city is not linear.

Sometimes, the promenade is punctuated by several piazzas and iconic buildings or monuments. The Prague Castle is one of those. This is this atmosphere that the project seeks to create.

Associated to the library definition, the project is generated around the concept of the castle. After several studies of those architecture pieces, the library reinterprets some of the castle’s key elements, including the circulation organized around a courtyard, and the idea of a central element, a tower or a keep.

This last element is symbolized by a central void. The library and its reading rooms are organized around it. This void becomes the heart of the library. This is where people meet and access the library. Above, reading rooms and exhibitions halls encircle it. Each of these rooms has a unique volume, creating varying levels of intimacy. In this configuration, everyone can find the space that fits him or her the most. Between the void and the reading rooms, a public garden is articulated. These figures compose the library and finally make it an emblematic meeting place in the city.

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Praha Castle II The project reinterprets castles’ organization and their typical circulation around an emblematic element and the combination of rooms of different scales and atmospheres. We find those two characteristics in the Prague Castle. Its organization is a succession of different spaces, wide or small, where volumes and atmospheres are evolving through the promenade.

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Reinterpretation of a castle keep The library and its reading rooms are articulated around a central void symbolizing by its absence a keep. The program spaces are aggregated around this void in order to make it the heart of the project, where people meet and access. We reach reading rooms, exhibition spaces, gathering halls directly through the groundfloor but also by a footbridge, encircling the void and punctuated by terraces and points of view looking toward the city.

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AA section

BB section

Between public and private The library’s indoor spaces are organized in order to create a private (dark grey) and public (light grey) ambiguity. Reading rooms are organized in a succession of different space typologies allowing intimacy or omniscience whereas offices’ private mezzanines allow views on exhibition spaces.

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Academic

From Adirondack.

College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

Cincinnati, USA. Fall 2011 Hank Hildebrandt as instructor

During my studies at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP, I attended a furniture design seminar which gave me the opportunity to work at the small scale of a piece of furniture.

Thus, there were two main issues: the challenge of answering human body needs and the goal of producing a finished product, from design to production.

The research is based on a reinterpretation of the Adirondack chair. Its main features are a low seat, wide armrests, angled backrest and a simple and strong wooden structure. The project seeks to integrate these key elements.

In the purpose of production and functionalism, the chair is also refers to Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair in its use of a stretched material and to Gerrit Rietveld’s Red and Blue chair for its use of a wooden structure.

The chair is finally produced as a prototype made of plywood.

Pieces are designed first in Rhino, then cut on a CNC machine and assembled by hand. Rather than the wood serving as the only structure, laces were included to link the wooden pieces and support the user’s body.

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From a Rhino file, a CNC machine has cut every pieces of plywood. They have been assembled together by a simple system of dolls and biscuits. Along the seating and backrest, notches give rythm to the chair profile and host laces.

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Workshop

Pôle K. Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

Kayakoy, Turkey.

Spring 2012 Jacques Pochoy as instructor

Kayakoy, Turkey, is a village characterized by a strong history represented by ruins. A workshop was organized by the École Spéciale and the Uludag University. After an analysis concerning both village and its valley, some solutions have evolved to develop the area, including the creation of a research lab for architectural and construction techniques.

The project initially seeks to answer the site physiognomy and fully integrates into the ruins. It is necessary to make them a key element of the project. This is why the project wants to link the ruins together in order to let the existing buildings be the threshold of the future extension. The ruins and the newly designed project will work together with the aim of developing a place for sharing and thinking.

To increase the idea of a sharing space, it is important to answer both issues of ground and access. Today, there are no actual paths. The solution is to adapt the new circulation as closely as possible to the topography. This strategy reults in a new walkable layer made of stairs, benches and terraces. This new circulation links the ruins together and creates access to the project. The last issue of the project is to connect the different parts of the program together. As a research lab based on collaboration is inserted in the project, it is necessary that everybody who is interested in the discussed topics can access it. The project and the effervescence created will allow Kayakoy to reach development and autonomy.

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The new ground layer is adapted as much as possible to the site topography. Programmatic spaces are defined by the ground, top platforms and by the ruins.

We access the project spaces independantly by an outdoor corridor on the street side. On the courtyard side, every program has an outdoor extension, for people to meet.

The ruin is the threshold between village and project. To access or exit the project, we have to cross it.

The project is developed on a concrete base in order to be as close as possible to the site’s topography.

Spaces transparency improve the sensation of a place for people to get in.

A continuous link is created between the ruins and the future project.

Kayakoy’s map, the Research Lab (1), the Archeological School (2) and the Coop (3).

AA section The project is integrated to the ruins. It offers a new practicable circulation.

Beginner Amateur

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Enthusiast Expert

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1 - Auditorium : for beginners, amateurs, enthusiasts and experts 2 - Library : for amateurs, enthusiasts and experts 3 - Research workshops : for enthusiasts and experts 4 - Laboratory : for experts 5 - Ruins : for everyone

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Ruins are also an exhibition space allowing the lab users to show their work and research.

The outdoor corridor links the ruins together.

Each outdoor or indoor space is delimited by a glass curtain. We can be inside or outside and have the possibility to see what is happening in the building.

Every indoor spaces can be open on an outdoor extension.

Only the street side facade is immovable.

The library.

Research workshops are open on an outdoor auditorium.

BB section

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Workshop

In the Steppe.

Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.

Bayanchandmani, Mongolia.

Spring 2010 Atelier Encore Heureux as instructor Publication Mongolian Urban Studio, Social and Ecological Alternatives in Mongolia

In April 2010, I participated in a volunteering experience organized in the Bayanchandmani village, Mongolia, coordinated by the École Spéciale and the Mongolian University of Sciences and Technology. This opportunity was divided into two steps. First, while visiting the capital city, Ulan Bator, we studied the mutation of a nomad nation into a sedentary one. The second step was an on-field workshop in Bayanchandmani, with the MUST’s students. The aim of this event was to propose different architectural solutions to answer the village’s needs, whether they were about public equipment or urban design. The first step of the workshop was the village analysis and survey. After that, results were presented to the town’s residents, alongside with different areas that required an intervention.

After the trip in Bayandchandmani and having learnt new points of view, we worked on two projects. One was to answer the water distribution issue and the other was to design the community center for the village. We wanted to address those two subjects by giving to both the idea of communal space, a place for meeting. For this reason, our community center was located in a central place in the village. We wanted to connect the community center to a network of water pumps organized all across the village.

In order to raise funds for the village, a book, «Mongolian Urban Studio, Social and Ecological Alternatives in Mongolia», was published at the end of the workshop. It illustrates the various steps of the project, while also highlighting the people who participated in the process.

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The project is open to all village’s inhabitants. They can come to learn, gather and get first need supplies. The center is composed of three buildings, one for the library, one for the multipurpose room and one for supplies.

Left hand side Inverted traditionnal plot principle to organize the plan of the building. From a closed space, the center seeks to open its access to each side of the village.

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Professional

Moshe Safdie & Associates.

Junior Architect.

Somerville, USA.

From October 2014 to October 2015 Jaron Lubin as principal All documents courtesy of Moshe Safdie & Associates

I joined Moshe Safdie’s competition team to work on a rich scope of projects, from residential, retail, hospitality or cultural to urban design. Four projects are highlighted.

The Beiterek Mall in Astana is our submission entry for a highend retail project located on the main axis of Kazakhstan’s capital. This urban scale building mixes retail, landscape features and cultural facilities. First, I was in charge of developing 2D documents. Then I was more specifically responsible for the development of all plans for the project.

I was also part of the competition for a development composed by a large park, retail and cultural facilities, and an iconic hotel building. I was responsible for the design of one of the key features of this project : the hotel Skypark. I worked on the development of each of its drawings and coordinated with the Model Shop to build the skypark model.

In Istanbul, I proposed landscape solutions for the waterfront of a project located in one of the city’s historic sites: Halic shipyards.On this project, I also worked on the final presentation booklet, developing diagrams, sections and renderings.

In Istanbul, I was also part of the competition team for an air traffic control tower. I was in charge of the plinth plan development and of the production of renderings and diagrams.

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Cultural Facilities Retail Promenade Garden Promenade

Transversal section The project is developped along two continuous spines. The promenade it creates is punctuated by indoor piazzas, outdoor bosquets and terraced gardens.

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Beiterek Mall, Astana, Kazakhstan The Beiterek Mall project seeks to develop a new typology mixing cultural, commercial and landscape spaces. It becomes an indoor promenade along Astana’s main axis that can be used all year long. Pedestrian can come here to enjoy the terraced gardens, featured outdoor bosquets, shop, or go to exhibitions and listen to music.

Composed of two wings, the building is linked to the city with main entrances at both ends and on the Beiterek Mall Piazza.

It is also connected to surrounding buildings by bridges.

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Halic Shipyard, Istanbul, Turkey The Halic project is located on Istanbul’s waterfront. The site, today disused, offers an exceptionnal situation relative to the city, but also to the historic architectures remaining there. Our proposal seeks to bring life back to this site by linking the historic buildings together and adding new program.

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1, historic and new structures 2, the canopy as a linkage 3, a covered promenade 4, an outdoor promenade

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This linkage is architecturally translated by a canopy that meets old and new structures.

Under it, a retail promenade brings vitality. The whole site will be activated by residential and hospitality buildings, concert halls and art exhibition spaces, but also by the waterfront promenade and its adjacent parks composed by ramps and cranes, the site architectural memories.

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Transversal & Longitudinal sections

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The canopy intersects with the existing structures, creating a continuous promenade across the site. Whereas the ground floor becomes a commercial area, the historical buildings turn into cultural spaces on the second floor.

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Hotel Skypark The skypark is the key feature of this hospitality project. It is an elevated landscaped promenade, composed by a 150 meters long pool, cafĂŠs, restaurants and by a dramatic observation deck.

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ATC Tower The project is divided in two entities : the iconic tower and the plinth, organized around a peaceful courtyard.

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Three options are proposed. The main scheme features a delicate skin.

Veil Scheme

Cable Scheme

Oblique Scheme

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Professional

Atelier Christian de Portzamparc.

Intern Architect.

Paris, France.

From March 2013 to July 2013 Barbara Bottet as principal All documents courtesy of AECPD

I worked in the Urban Planning Department of the Pritzker Prize winning office of Christian de Portzamparc.

During this four months experience, I worked on three main projects, which were each in a different phase of development.

I participated in the elaboration of construction documents for the Massy Grand Ouest project’s buildings. This project is a master plan composed of several cultural, commercial and housing buildings for an area in Massy, outside of Paris. While working on this project, I gained a better understanding of French regulations regarding urban planning issues, but also regarding fire prevention for public buildings, safety and accessibility for people with reduced mobility and private housing.

After Massy’s project, I worked on one specific project of the Grenoble Presqu’île master plan and on the Lille Saint-Sauveur competition. Working on those two projects allowed me to understand the methodology of an urban planning project. In both cases, teams were divided to focus on specific aspects of the project. In Grenoble, I developed different educational solutions for a school. In Lille, I worked on the city and site analysis through the production of different vignettes, maps and diagrams.

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Professional

Studios Architecture.

Intern Architect.

Washington DC, USA. From September 2012 to February 2013 Brian Pilot as principal All documents courtesy of Studios Architecture

My internship at Studios Architecture in Washington DC started after my first year of M.Arch and was my second experience in an international American firm.

During six months, I had the opportunity to work on a wide set of projects, from competition to construction phases and from corporate to institutional programs. This variety allowed me to improve my computational, personal or relational skills.

While working on different interior design corporate projects, I gained stronger knowledge of Revit and reached a greater level of detail than I had in previous work. Being part of the Haiti Cathedral’s competition team to do renderings, plans and diagrams helped me understand the process and the importance of competitions in an architectural firm but also to improve my capacity to develop architectural concepts in a professional context.

Jumping between several corporate, institutional and educational projects was challenging since each time I had to incorporate a new team’s methodology. This was always interesting, as I could adapt myself to any type of interior design or architectural projects, improve my knowledge regarding regulations and LEED necessities, and get a better understanding of Studios’ culture and way of doing architecture.

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I worked on the final package, producing atmosphere renderings, plans and diagrams. The project, located on the destroyed by earthcake original cathedral site, is about memory and reflexion. Thus, the intervention is inserted in the original nave footprint and organized along a meditation journey.

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Professional

Gensler.

Intern Architect.

Chicago, USA.

From December 2011 to February 2012 Jay Longo and Todd Baisch as principals All documents courtesy of Gensler

After spending few months as a graduate exchange student at the DAAP, I had the opportunity to work as an architectural intern for 3 months in Gensler Chicago’s office.

This experience was challenging and fascinating as it was my first time working at an American firm that practices internationally. From the beginning of my internship, I could feel completely integrated to the office and the team I worked with. During this internship, I had the opportunity to work on several residential, commercial and corporate projects and to understand various issues, from the design’s backstage to clients meetings.

The first project I began, which I continued for the duration of my time at Gensler, was a residential and retail project located in the southern part of Chicago. Working first on marketing packages, analysis and renderings allowed me to show my adaptability to this new context and understand Gensler’s culture and organization.

Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to work on the rehabilitation of a mall located in downtown Minneapolis. We were a two person team working on this project. Following this, I worked on an office building in downtown Chicago, proposing several schemes for the architecture of the building and its interior organization. Working on those two projects and experiencing a mixture of facade studies, architecture and interior design was very interesting as it allowed me to improve my skills and design competences regarding those fields, but also gave me more and increasing responsibilities and autonomy.

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The Maxwell The Maxwell is a project divided in two parts : a residential one on top of a commercial plinth.

My work here was to do a market analysis of the Chicago real estate and commercial offer. I had also to do a set of renderings and elevations, in order to be shown during client meetings.

Maxime Faure Academic and Professional Architecture and Urban Design projects