Anne Démians, archi determined – Liberation

Concerned about the ecological challenge, the first woman architect to sit at the Academy of Fine Arts multiplies the projects-manifestos and advocates the reversibility of buildings.

Everything about her is driven by balance. Between body and mind. Between his aristocratic origins and his emancipation from a conservative Catholic milieu. Between his propensity to dream and the exercise of Reason. Or, between a busy professional life and a private life “blossoming”. Between a reserve of principle and a voluble verb. Between a stubborn rigor and an affable presence. And it is from this in-between, this mania for synthesis, dialectic or going beyond that Anne Démians patiently traces a singular architectural furrow, strewn with manifest buildings (the Black Swans in Strasbourg, the Dunes, head office Société Générale in Fontenay-sous-Bois) or rehabilitation of heritage buildings (the centenary thermal baths of Nancy, inaugurated this spring).

His many notable achievements have earned the 60-year-old architect the respect of his peers and the learned world. “It has a forward-looking and daring architecture with this desire to reinvent it”, abounds his colleague Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect and inspector of historical monuments. “She is passionate, has an easy approach and a holistic approach as they say”also salutes the mathematician Cédric Villani, contributor to the latest book by Anne Démians to be published, Dream-Civility. A recognition, also crowned by his election, in 2021, to the Academy