Lunch with an Architect

Founded in 2012, the French practice Lambert Lénack brings together a team of 30 architects and develops a wide range of projects across all scales – urban planning, housing, public facilities and office buildings – championing an architecture that is both disciplined and ambitious. Lambert Lénack stands out for its ambitious research-driven approach to housing, fostering a convergence between architecture and territory. This approach is guided by three core values: quality of use, ecology and aesthetic ambition. The latter is embodied in a rigorous drawing practice, serving the pursuit of clarity, where the issues identified at each scale are reconciled within an abstract and poetic form. The practice continuously seeks constructive solutions that reconcile frugality, local craftsmanship and the use of materials according to their specific properties, with concrete playing a particularly significant role. Its inspiring projects forge meaningful connections between buildings and their surroundings. Examples include the housing schemes developed within the Parc Princesse eco-district in Le Vésinet, whose volumetric composition is shaped by the presence of existing trees; the balconies and loggias of the residential buildings in the Saint-Ouen Olympic Village and at Ivry-Confluence, which become expressive architectural elements; and an unprecedented collaboration with artist Eva Jospin on a residential building in Bagneux, where sculpted vegetal motifs created by the artist were integrated into the precast concrete façades, giving the material a distinctive identity and presence. A bold and distinctive practice, Lambert Lénack continually reinvents itself, balancing rigour and originality in every project.