Hi Damien, how are you doing today?

 

I'm good, thank you. Very busy, but great (laughs)

 

I wanted to ask you about your practice, Patriarche, and a description that you popped onto your website of what you do; essentially, your approach as 'makers and augmented architects'. What do you mean by that? Could you unpack that a little for us? 

 

Yes, of course. Augmented architecture comes from the fact that we believe that architecture has a value only once it's built, and to build architecture, you need a lot of different competencies. So the architect if you like organizes the whole thing, but it needs engineers, it needs interior architects, construction managers, cost controllers - a lot of different competencies. In the early days of the practice, we started to have that in house. And we started after that to expand to other parts of the real estate business, because we feel that real estate is becoming more and more serious, where you need to be closer and closer to the end user. And so, if you keep the architecture as the main subject around the use, the environment and the design, we decided to be able to bring more services to our end user's lives. So we became general contractor, and developer. And we even operate some of the places to make sure that the architecture is lived completely, and that it serves the use that all clients are expecting.

 

You've now entered Britain, with a new office. Why have you chosen to do that now, particularly given Brexit and impending recession and doom, (laughs) on these shores (laughs)?

 

(laughs) Actually, we are always looking at things on a long-term basis. We are first of all a family business, and we don't have any shareholders to give profit to. Our only profit is to have a smile on our face! And so, if it's now, or if it's three years from now, or if it was three years ago, it doesn't really matter for us, because we are looking at the business as a whole, as a life's journey. But we also see that London, and the UK is the country where you can link every Western country because it's like a very good bridge between, let's say, North America and Europe, and the northern countries, and the southern countries of Europe. It has all of these cultures all together. So, it's like something very strong for us to expand in other markets, not only in the UK, both to gain a better knowledge of all the different cultures and also access this market, especially with the English language. But also, to be able to hire key people. There are plenty of talents in the UK, and especially in London. So, it's also a way of finding talent, and to be able to work in the UK and abroad from here.

 

What are your goals? And in which areas typologically are you interested in, in a market sense in the UK, for example?

 

As a firm, we basically work in any kind of area. But I’d say at first, our strong points are life science, which is something very strong in the world in general, and very specific. Ee are very good specialists in life science and have clients that are worldwide companies. So, when we have a project, it can be in any country in the world sometimes. So, it totally makes sense. We are also looking at more in office space, like new ways of working. With all our internal competencies we are excited the way work is evolving and changing, with remote work and all the way work things are changing. So we bring solutions that can be both digital and physical; we specialize in smart buildings and digital research. So new ways of working and office space might be another area where we want to really bring something. And of course, any type of opportunity of retrofit buildings - as it is the future of architecture.

 

What what made you choose the City of London as a location for your office?

 

The place we decided to set up our office is really linked to the place where we think we can hire the best talent. I took several trips to London, looked around and met a lot of people from different practices and also from different environments. And I felt this was right for us all. So, a lot of intuition. I think people that we hired so far are very happy with the location we found. It looks like a very good choice.

 

And you're in good company with big practices like Richard Rogers' outfit in the City, of course, and others...

 

We are a bit north of the city, but it is also very convenient in terms of transportation for people coming from abroad.

 

Yeah. And lastly, at what challenges have you faced so far, and how has it been so far? And indeed, how long have you been here? (laughs)

 

(laughs) Yeah, we really started the company in May, last year, by the hiring of Alan Kypriadis, who is the general manager, and Mathew Chater, who is the head of operations. And they had a lot of challenge, more with the admin part, more than all the rest. Anything connected to our profession was fairly easy. Even with the ARB and RIBA, and all of that. What was more difficult was all the administrative stuff to start up the company, being able to recruit and hire people and give them contracts and all of that, because we wanted to start very strong and very fast, but it takes time to put everything in place. So that was the challenge. Apart from that, we felt it was very easy on the business side of things. And people are very open to talk to us and very easy also to attract talents that wanted to work for our company and believe in our message.

 

Brilliant. Well, congratulations on setting up over here. I love the name Patriarche! That's your surname, and you're the grandson of the founder, aren't you? 

 

Exactly.

 

Fantastic name for an architecture firm with 'arch' even even being in the word. So yeah, that's great.

 

Yeah, in French, it's like Patrimoine it's like for old buildings, so heritage. Patrimoine archi-bureautech. I like it!

 

Great. Well, thanks again. And thanks for your time, and good luck here.

 

Great! Thanks a lot. Have a nice day, David.

 

Thank you. And you, bye!