ODILE DECQ, BENOIT CORNETTE, Architectes, Urbanistes

BIOGRAPHY

ODILE DECQ et BENOIT CORNETTE born respectively in 1955 and 1953, are in collaboration since 1985.

Odile Decq received her architectural diploma in 1978; she also has a diploma from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris on Urbanism and Planning in 1979.

Benoit Cornette received an Architectural diploma in 1985; he previously completed medical school in 1978.

After several architectural interior projects, urban studies and some architectural realisations in the west of France including several national competitions, they achieved in 1990 two buildings for the " Banque Populaire de l'Ouest " in Rennes of which they won the commission after a national competition held in 1988. This project, having received more than 10 awards, nationally and internationally, is the subject of numerous publications around the world, allowing them access to notoriety.

Afterwards, they have completed 2 collective housing projects in Paris, the viaduct of Highway A14 in Nanterre, France along with the construction of the Highway Managerial Center suspended underneath the viaduct.

The publication of their work, more than 200 appearances, of which half is in the international press, was completed during the summer 1996 by the release of a monographe by Phaidon Press in London.

Realising numerous exhibites (of which half on the international scene ), conferences and symposiums, they have also participed in several international competitions notably in Osaka, Cardiff, Vienna, Berlin, and Dublin.

Represented in the Venice Biennale, september 1996, as well as being commissioned to provide the exhibit design for the French Pavillion, a Golden Lion Award was attributed to them for their overall architectural projects.

Currently, they are in the process of realising a university complex for the University of Nantes, a collective housing project in Clichy, a social housing complex in Paris, the urban planning of 400 hectares at the Port of Gennevilliers in the north-west of Paris and the construction of a covered tribune for a rugby stadium in Orléans, France.

In parallel, they've taught as visiting professors at University of Montreal and at Grenoble. Odile DECQ, jury member for the end of year evaluation at the Westminster University and at the Bartlett School in London, is professor and the head o the Departement of Architecture at the " Ecole Speciale d'Architecture " in Paris.

They qualify their work which looks to associate the "plastic" invention and technical innovation as " Hyper-Tension ". It is a dynamic vision of space generated by a sequential vision, integration of displacement, of movement, tension and complexity of the perceptions of space. Finally, it is a complex expression, characteristic of the end of the century which carries new architectural and social identities.

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CNASEA, Limoges, France, 1994

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Extension to the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, 1996

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Public Office Headquarters, Herouville St.Clair, France  1996

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Venice Biennial Exhibition of Architecture, September 1996:

Exhibit design for the French Pavillion

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Tribune d'Honneur, Orléans, France, 1997