Biography
POSITION
Architect associate Coco Architecture, France
PROJECT
BIG GOURDON INTERCOMMUNALE LIBRARY
AWARDS
AWARDS OF THE OFFICE:
Trophée Promotélec 2015, Les Souffleurs (short-listed)
Archinovo 2015, Maison Jelowicki & Maison Cornilleau (short-listed)
Leaf Award 2014, Refurbishment of the Year, Bibliothèque Intercommunale de Gourdon (BIG)
Architecture Price MP2013, Centre d’Interprétation de la Plage aux Ptérosaures
AWARDS OF THE SPEAKER:
EDF Foundation, Bangkok – Amphibious City
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzy, TirolCITY
BIOGRAPHY
CoCo architecture was founded by French-Austrian architects, Claudia Staubmann and Cedric Ramiere. Their experience is mostly based on research into contemporary urban issues and the development of regional tourism during various prolonged stays abroad.
Cedric Ramiere’s research, completed in the Netherlands and Bangkok, Thailand, focuses on a larger scale. In Bangkok, he explored ways to reutilise skyscrapers that had been abandoned during their construction. These structures remain littered throughout the city. Several years later, he participated in a study on the possible urban changes Bangkok faces with rising water levels in the delta of the Chao Phraya River. His work was sponsored by the EDF (Electricity of France) foundation and exhibited at the Bangkok Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art and in Paris at the EDF Electra space.
Claudia and Cedric met nearly ten years ago, while working on a series of projects looking to develop areas of tourism within France. Their first joint project was the development of the International Centre of Prehistory in the Vezere Valley in Dordogne. Together they created YEAN (Young European Architects Network) in 2003, with partners from Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Vienna, Austria. YEAN is known particularly for the project and subsequent book entitled ‘TirolCITY’, published by Folio in 2005, and exhibited in a number of European countries. The project won important prizes in both the Netherlands and Austria.
In 2005, Claudia and Cedric formed CoCo architecture, whose team today consists of 8 architects and 2 secretarial assistants. The office continues to work together to design projects increasingly ambitious both in scale and complexity.
CoCo architecture aims to be a catalyst for social change, putting environmental and lifestyle values at the heart of human endeavour. To achieve this, the CoCo architecture team focuses on thoughtful architecture which respects nature and energy consumption, and reflects local thinking and traditional attitudes as well as modern approaches.