Matthieu Gelin and David Lafon met at the beginning of their studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture of Paris-Belleville. They graduated there In 2000. Their finals projects were completed under the direction of Henri Ciriani and focused on an erudite architecture and travel: Norway for one, and India for the other one. Then, they continued their careers in Parisian agencies for Matthieu Gelin and, very early, as freelance for David Lafon. In 2005, they decided to found their own architecture agency. The main aim of the agency is to respond to invitations to tender, such as the project won at Porte des Lilas in Paris, which was given to the agency at the end of 2005. They won the price Nouveaux Albums des Jeunes Architectes that same year.
Matthieu Gelin and David Lafon work as a team. They always discuss their critical approaches to architecture, to projects and to tutelary figures. This constant dialogue led them to agree on what architecture would reach in a common vision in an agency led in tandem. Beyond the question of style, projects are around a contextual narration. For them, architecture has to be the support of stories addressed to the users.
The agency’s approach is different in the way it considers form and shape. There is a kind of relaxation when considering the form. The agency tires to make the constructed object less impressive, to produce a liberation of the form which plays with material, volumetry and references. Finally, this way of thinking coul, in fact, lead to strengthen an element which is becoming scarce in nowadays cities: the joy of living. The agency wants to produce lively places, places where public spaces and uses meets, between the scale of the city and the scale of private space.
Matthieu Gelin and David Lafon are also working as teachers. David Lafon has been working at the Ecole d’Architecture de la Ville & des Territoires at Marne-la-Vallée since 2008 for David Lafon and Matthieu Gelin at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture of Versailles since 2006.