Anthony Authié

I joined a large agency, which mainly deals with the construction of certain skyscrapers at La Défense. But I quickly had a feeling of disillusion, as if during my studies I had been sold a dream that does not really exist. I drew a little book from it entitled “Baston de Regards” in which I exorcize these questions about the practice of architecture and the arrival in the professional world. The book is about this disillusionment, and it begins to set my ideas on architecture, and in particular in connection with subcultures. It was my first solitary adventure, a kind of moment out of time, suspended, in opposition to the very down-to-earth demands that I had to respond to at work. A second essay followed, named “Muscles”. This one shows the link between the practice of bodybuilding and architecture. Men who do weightlifting seem to create a second body for themselves, a kind of membrane protecting them from the external world. I linked this idea to that of the house, the cocoon, the place where you take refuge.

These publications were constructed around my passion for architecture and they allowed me to materialize a real personal project – shaped, inhabitable. I wanted to create spaces in which one feels the emotions that I talk about in the books. That’s when I asked myself the question of how to get bids. Without a real network in Paris, I couldn’t get a first client. I then saw the rise of 3D and computer-generated images with very realistic renderings. I told myself that if I couldn’t get a first project, I could build it myself, to give myself legitimacy in the industry. And to have this legitimacy, I had to be published. And to be published without projects, I had to do 3D. So I worked on photo-realistic projects to lure a few journalists…

Yes, I think it is important to talk about it so that young people coming out of school know about it. Architecture is a networking environment, you have to go to the Pavillon de l’Arsenal and get to know everyone. This is not necessarily possible if you are not studying in Paris. I asked my employer to finance my 3D training, I bought a big computer and I threw myself into it. Quite quickly, I gave myself constraints, just like on a real project, and I created a story. I sent my project – hence fabricated – to the press pretending it was real, I even wrote a press release. At the time, I didn’t even have my status yet, but it worked! I had a publication in Design Boom, then in AD Russia, and finally a reportage on my first real project which I was doing for a friend.

I am not for the abundance of projects, by choice. I want to be able to rethink the space as a whole. I like the idea that people want to work with me for my identity. As a result, my production is fairly consistent in terms of aesthetics, very consistent. Everything is connected. I also developed design ideas on small furniture. Same as with writing, I was not predestined to design, but today I like the idea of ​​developing a really advanced way of working, in different aspects. I’m grateful when people call me for 360-degree projects, which make me feel like I am constantly reinventing myself.

That’s exactly the idea. I have a particular aesthetic and the projects I work on must fit into this vision. I am ready to make concessions, but the customer must also listen. It cannot be one sided, I understand that, if you want to put your soul into a project, but you don’t approach Ralph Lauren if you want to do Gucci..

It’s funny that you mention it, because a lot of the themes that drive me and inspire me come from subcultures, for example tuning, techno or French pop. I also talk a lot about reality TV, because I have always been immersed in this culture. My mom used to watch Le Loft, it was her regular rendezvous, and I was right next to her. But it rapidly became unpopular among the higher intellectual elite…

Exactly. I have always liked it, and I still watch a lot of similar things. It is not a curiosity for mediocrity. I genuinely want to know what will happen between such and such person in the next episode. And yes it’s true that I have consciously or unconsciously used these codes of influence to show my work. I try to establish my character. My double.

It is essential that I resemble my work because I create “boxes”, houses, which are supposed to represent the people who live in them. I must have an aesthetic that resembles me, in which I “fit” completely. I see it as an inseparable whole. I make no difference between my personal life and my work, everything is intimately entwined. My work influences me and vice versa. It is almost visceral.

There are many positions. One may prefer to step aside to make room for work. On the other hand, when the two go together, it is an adventure for two. A journalist wrote a short book entitled: “Why do architects dress in black? “. 50% consider that it is to fade away from their work, it is the idea of a shadow. The architect becomes a passing black light and the architecture is the main work. Why not? But that’s not my way of thinking.

You always have to be as honest as possible with your clients. But also avoid being eaten up. I choose to work with people who respect and are interested in my expertise. You always have to find a balance, which is a real game of equilibrium. I think it’s important to be someone thorough in your production, in your thinking and also in your way of experiencing the elements. It’s important not to call someone and ask them to do the opposite of what they are.

I’m working on Squeezie’s apartment and Myd’s apartment. Squeezie is my biggest project, and my biggest budget, a carte blanche with few returns. There is only one constraint, that of creating a recording studio for streaming. It is rather special because there needs to be a decor and a certain management of computer cables. Its architecture will become its public identity. For Myd it’s the same, everything revolves around his identity, his way of speaking, of dressing, we set up a whole concept inspired by him. My work will become a form of reality TV, because all these people expect a radical aesthetic, which is in line with my vision of architecture. Those who work with me choose to have something unique and this makes it possible to realistically apply the theories that I started writing on trans-design, monochrome and the perpetual search for a playful space that refers to my youth.

At one point, I was obsessed with a rather cold aesthetic. I also had a fairly radical speech about the non-use of wood. With maturity, I realize that my reasons were not the right ones. Squeezie, for example, wanted wood, and so I am trying to reinterpret this material to make it something that belongs to me and that fits my vision. I will therefore use it more as a pattern than as a material, as a monochrome which is no longer a monochrome of color but of pattern. Monochrome is something quite obsessive that allows you to create immersive spaces. With the same pattern on the floor, on the ceiling, we lose the notions of horizontal and vertical. I have a penchant for cold spaces and saturated colors, from my childhood, from animé, cartoons, and reality TV. I really use color as a volume, to dissociate spaces, without partitioning. I like open spaces, linked by function, in which we are a little lost.

They identify the space. Le Corbusier, who was often seen as someone very clinical, as a radical modernist, very rigorous and using a lot of white, was in fact a very good colorist, and he often said that a base of white made a color sing. It touched me when I read it, because it echoes my way of seeing things. A neutral monochromatic base is there to highlight the rest.

The toilets and the bathroom are considered inferior rooms. But we actually spend a lot of time there, and I like to revamp these spaces in which we can therefore put a strong desire for aesthetics. Creating shock in architecture feels good. Architecture makes it possible to arouse people’s curiosity.

Creating a proposal that makes the person raise their head and look, is the goal of “composite” cities. They arouse curiosity. Massimiliano Fuksas wrote a book that deals with the subject, “Caos Sublime”, which talks about the idea of ​​hybridization, things that are built with historical strata. Le Corbusier wanted to eliminate everything by creating a functional city, like a perfect body with the aim of production and social encounter. From a theoretical point of view, the idea works, but not in practice. What works, in my opinion, is the composite city. The homogeneity creates the museum, we are no longer surprised but captivated. In my essay “Muscles”, I talk about hybridization, trans-design, and hybrid architecture. I think that we have already created everything on the aesthetic level, and that what we must create today is hybridization, by taking a Louis XVI table and adding a hydraulic leg found in a garage in Montreuil for example. We compose with two contradictory elements but which tell a story of time.

No, because it turns out that architecture is not paid very well. But I’m not looking for a crazy turnover. I couldn’t work on a lot of projects at the same time anyway, otherwise I would need to delegate some of the artistic direction and I don’t necessarily want to do that for the moment. The windows when I’m doing 3D are kind of like a break, I can also write. At the moment I am making soaps for Christmas with my girlfriend. I love expanding myself, trying many scales and mediums. Without this, I wouldn’t feel like I was living five lives at once, and I think I would get bored.