Seventh Edition 2019-2020
Founded in 2007 in Paris by Stéphanie Bru (1973) and Alexandre Theriot (1972), Bruther works in the fields of architecture, research, education, urbanism and landscape. Bruther aims “to understand and to accept conceptual and constructive needs but also to be able to back down and unexpectedly encounter new experimentation and research areas. Our projects suggest a delicate balance between strategy and form, rigor and freedom, specific and generic, immediacy and evolutivity. Considering the program in its future, our projects stand for open infrastructures that fit an abundance of context possibilities and a wide malleability of uses”.
Bruther has been awarded the Prix de l’Équerre d’argent 2016 (for the New Generation Research Center, Caen), the Gold Award, Best Architects Awards 2016 (for the Cultural and Sports Center Saint-Blaise, Paris), and nominated in 2015 for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (for the Cultural and Sports Center Saint-Blaise, Paris).
Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot lectured at various architecture schools worldwide, as Associate Professor of Architecture & Design. Alexandre Theriot currently teaches in the Department of Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland.
The jury unanimously conferred the Swiss Architectural Award 2020 on Bruther for the Cultural and Sports Centre Saint-Blaise, Paris (2010-2014), the New Generation Research Centre, Caen (2013-2015) and the Residence for researchers “Maison Julie-Victoire Daubié”, Paris (2014-2018).
For the Jury “The three works presented by Bruther (Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot) deal, with great coherence and quality, with the theme of the periphery (and specifically, the periphery of French cities), recognised as the nerve centre where the contradictions of our society manifest themselves with disruptive force. In difficult contexts, marked by social tensions and characterised by anonymous if not degraded spaces, Bruther intervenes with an architecture characterised by a profound civic demand, which aims to restore dignity to these places and their inhabitants”.
The jury recognised Bruther’s work as fully in line with the objectives of the Swiss Architectural Award, which aims to encourage public debate on the role of architecture in contemporary society through the involvement of the three Swiss schools of architecture, and more urgently in this period of crisis.
© Video by Daniele Marucci
© Video by Daniele Marucci
© Video by Daniele Marucci