A generation in spite of itself

TC: The question of whether there are genuinely more new practices emerging today is one worth interrogating. The apparent proliferation of agencies, if one can call it that, may in fact result from a heavy and constraining commissioning context — one defined by the necessity of integrating environmental concerns. What looks like emergence might instead be the result of an architectural uniformisation that gives the impression of a new generation of architects whose output is more similar than in the past. BRA belongs, despite itself, to a generation that must adapt to this context, as every generation of architects has had to engage with its own given conditions, with both the positive aspects those conditions favour and the potential excesses they produce. 

SM: One of our ambitions is to accept this reality without falling into the caricature of an era still governed by an excessive simplification of architectural concerns. In many respects, BRA feels closer to the work of certain Belgian, Japanese, German, Swiss, and Portuguese practices than to the majority of agencies that might otherwise define its generation.

Method and conviction

SM: What animates us is the desire to confront the diverse situations of specific territories, and to investigate problems that are sometimes forgotten or neglected by the profession. The desire to propose a narrative through construction, to produce practical works with noble functions. Writing down what is understood, and where it seems pertinent to go, is a prerequisite to any project — often the search for a building that is at once intelligible yet one that also conceals certain secrets: intentions that are less obvious, less straightforward, hidden behind other justifications. A sometimes lengthy phase of morphological research then attempts to find a relevant implantation, which constitutes the second stage of the process. Next comes the question of massing, of solids and voids, which requires adjusting the openings. After that, the atmospheric definition is refined, before we consider how to qualify it through structure, services, and materials. The end result of this work is space, and the functionalities that follow from it. 

TC: We do not believe that certain themes are better addressed than others. Priorities emerge according to the project, and some are more visible than others. A carefully worked implantation or morphology will always be more legible than the use of certain innovative materials such as straw, which is never visible once built. Out of a concern for restraint — the architect should not be vain — we do not seek to make its research into a publicity slogan. This modesty imposes a form of equity and discretion in a permanent research that tends towards balance and equal treatment of subjects. Our concerns include: the search for an intelligible equilibrium between morphology and programme; the search for permissive implantations; flexible structural systems and plans; the expression of the essence of materials and structures; economy of means in all its aspects; the definition of atmospheres; and the use of ancient materials, techniques, and craft knowledge.

Three projects, three territories

SM: The nautical base at Jullouville is founded above all on the implantation of the masses in relation to one another and on the plot. The site is only twice the size of the programme it must contain. We questioned how to integrate a rich programme onto a constrained site whilst producing a building that functions well in terms of flow, and that respects its neighbours without imposing itself. The answer was an assembly of several discreet volumes, each housing one element of the programme in the form of a house — like those alongside it. The whole is positioned at the centre of the parcel, freeing the perimeter and allowing the circulation of nautical vehicles and students. The project at Pont-de-Buis sits on the former enclosed site of the station, characterised by poor legibility and urban discontinuity. Fencing, dense vegetation, and the absence of any landmark limited its attractiveness. Our intervention aimed to reopen the site, clarify access, and reconnect the square to the town centre, whilst ensuring pedestrian continuity. The approach rests on a logic of economy: existing buildings are retained and integrated, limiting new foundations. The hall, inserted between these structures, creates a space framed between the town and its market activities. Its circular form and curved roof make it an identifiable landmark, contributing to the requalification of the site's image. The structure, reduced to three columns supplementing the existing fabric, frees a vast space adaptable to different uses. A planted central patio provides daylight, thermal comfort, and rainwater management. A micro-perforated screen ensures climatic protection whilst maintaining visual porosity. 

TC: The ossuary for the cemetery at Rennes sits within a demanding technical, memorial, and landscape context. Faced with a constrained programme, the project moves away from a strictly utilitarian approach to propose a place of quiet contemplation. The architecture conceals the technical devices in favour of a unified reading, neutral and without religious reference, in order to guarantee an inclusive and accessible space. The design draws on the notion of time, expressed through an abstract language of massive walls evoking blocks of stone. Their irregularities and surface roughness assume a sensitive materiality marked by ageing, in opposition to standardised surfaces. This abstraction allows multiple resonances — Breton ossuaries, megaliths, primitive spaces — without direct formal reference. The anchoring to the site is fundamental: the concrete wall panels are cast in place, in contact with the earth, retaining its imprint and ensuring continuity with the surrounding schist. Each wall, made to measure, valorises artisanal craft knowledge. The low-carbon concrete was chosen for its durability, thermal inertia, and waterproofing qualities, favouring conservation, limiting maintenance, and reinforcing landscape integration.

Conviction and continuity

TC: The challenges ahead are in continuity with those we have faced from the beginning: to produce a demanding, holistic architecture that does not succumb to the excesses of a commissioning culture uniformised by programmes that valorise the quantitative, data, and performance. The ambition is to continue resisting, in order to promote robustness, resilience, beauty, transversality, and simplicity — alongside the acceptance of complexity, cultural enrichment, and the preservation of landscapes. 

SM: Our perspectives are at once multiple and ordinary, but they defend a vision of a just and balanced world, founded on values in which the moral dimension takes precedence over concerns that are less collective and more personal. That conviction was shaped early. An early competition, undertaken in association with a more experienced practice on a project with a rich and complex programme, produced a response that was too close to the programme's literal terms — a technocratic answer, disconnected from its context. The project resembled a mille-feuille of constraints that smothered any architectural synthesis. This competition marked the trigger for a systematic and inventive re-reading of programmes. It was perhaps one of those key moments in which one comes to understand one of the essential dimensions of architecture, among so many others. 

As for parallel activities — teaching, research, writing — the practice has not yet gone there. The discipline is complex and demanding, and it has seemed important, until now, not to become too dispersed.