Milestones
1985: The newly created practice, with partners Thomas Richez, Bertrand Dubus and Édouard François, boasted cumulative and growing experience in areas as varied as residential, office, commercial and industrial buildings, and workplace cafeterias, as well as redevelopment and urban planning. The multi-disciplinary theme for the practice begins here.
1991: This is the period of competitions and the first glances towards projects in Asia. The practice won the competition for the French embassy in Singapore. In the same year, the practice carried out the refurbishment of the French pavilion for the international expo in Taejon in South Korea (1993), and was selected to build three towers as part of the Euralille development.
1997: The practice grows as projects multiply: the headquarters of the Caisses d’Epargne (12,000 sq m in Paris), design for the new city of Putrajaya (Malaysia), and as consultant architect for an area of urban development, Vaugirard, in southern Paris.
2007: The practice wins the competition for the tramway in Le Mans. This project is subsequently followed by other tramway projects, which will lead to worldwide acclaim in this field: Reims, Brest, Orleans, Casablanca, Tours and Liège.
2009-2018: At the beginning of 2009, Paul Andreu (Roissy and Shanghai airports, the Beijing Opera) moves into Richez_Associés’ offices, where he is able to draw on teams of staff, in collaboration with Thomas Richez, to develop major projects: the museum of Tai Yuan, the Jinan Opera, the city council headquar-ters in Bordeaux …
THE GROUP TODAY: Richez_Associés, led by Thomas Richez and Vincent Cottet, has over 30 years of experience. Today, the 75-strong practice works on a variety of projects – residential, offices and public amenities, and manages development projects such as those in Montpellier, Bègles and Paris. We are renowned for our work designing public space, and are an acknowledged leader in tramway design.
Concerned with the quality of its work, and consequently with the importance of organisational systems, Richez_Associés has been working to an ISO 9001 standard quality-control system since 2001.
2 PARTNERSHIPS
ZD_R: It was in 1997 that the practice established itself in Asia, in Kuala Lumpur, with the setting up of ZD_R. Led by Zaini Zainul, in just a few years the company became one of the renowned architectural practices in Malaysia. The practice worked most notably on the urban plan of the new federal administrative city of Putrajaya, with an additional role as architect for its city hall, and marked out a niche for itself in hotel design (architecture and interior design).
Ginko & Associés: To enable the design of truly bioclimatic buildings, the practice has established a partnership with engineering consultants Ginko & Associés, also based in Richez_Associés’ offices, whose work is dedicated to the study of energy and sustainable development.