Vedomosti

1990

Opened his own bureau. Main areas of activity - projects in the field of urbanism, including infrastructure, design of public spaces, architectural projects.

1995-1999

He taught at the National School of Bridges and Roads (Department of Urbanism) and until 2000 he directed (together with Ariella Mabungi) the National Workshop of Urban Projects at the Ministry of Public Works.

Nice Meridia is a city-forming project of a new technopolis and transport hub on the French Riviera. It is designed for 680,000 square meters of residential, commercial, office space, parks and public areas, and provides for both the reconstruction of existing buildings and the construction of new ones. Architect Christian Devillers told Vedomosti about how similar projects are developing in France, about new French urbanism, public-private partnerships and the need to develop eco-development. It is his bureau Devillers & Associes that is working on the transformation of Nice.

- In France, are architects more entrepreneurs or creators? Is there competition between the two? Who wins?

- I would classify most French architects as artists or creators. We don't have as many large agencies as in the US, where hundreds or even thousands of people work. In France, there are only a few of them, and, as a rule, they are part of public structures, such as Paris airports. My agency employs fifty people. There were more before the crisis. I think that now in France there are about 40 good architectural bureaus, and, of course, there is competition between them. The most famous companies, such as Jean Nouvel's bureau, receive large international orders.

- Russian architects don't like to talk about money, but their projects are becoming increasingly commercialized. How do you make money in France? Through competitions or private orders?

- We receive many orders thanks to competitions. Any public structure in France cannot place an order with you directly, it must put it out to tender. There is a special law that regulates this, it was adopted, if I am not mistaken, more than 40 years ago. Without a competition, an architect can get a job thanks to a private initiative. Our agency designs public spaces, boulevards, bridges, infrastructure. We also do large urban projects, such as Nice Meridia, and participate in the design of Grand Paris. In the field of urban planning, we work - almost exclusively - for municipalities, state development companies. In France, there are not many private developers implementing large-scale projects. The most famous is Bouygues Immobilier, which is currently building a large quarter in Bordeaux for 3,000 homes, several hundred thousand square meters of commercial real estate with a dance center and its own church.

- Moscow region authorities have suggested that developers even build cemeteries.

- In France, municipalities deal with this.

- What do they demand from private developers?

- I will explain with an example. For example, on the territory of Nice Meridia, a private company wants to build a house. Regardless of whether it bought the site from a government agency or a private individual, it must, firstly, build the building in accordance with the technical requirements developed by us, and secondly, participate in the financing of public facilities, developing the public space. It transfers funds to the municipality or the government developer. We call this "participation" in the project. Nowadays, authorities rarely ask developers to build a street or a school. This is done with taxes, which are paid by developers, among other things.

- Eco-projects are developing in Russia. But developers don't like them - they say they are more expensive and the profit is not obvious. What do they think about this in Europe?

- In Europe, such projects are no longer treated as some kind of fashion. Global warming, emissions of harmful gases and other environmental problems are something we cannot ignore if we want to survive. But there is another side to the coin: a few years ago, some politicians actively advocated for ecology. Then the crisis came and these conversations died down. For our bureau, eco-projects are what we focus on. Everything we work on has the goal of sustainable development.

You say - such projects are more expensive? Not at all. On the contrary, such development often allows you to save. And not only later, but even before the start of construction. The developer, for example, will spend less on developing the site. When you build an eco-quarter, you design fewer roads, gas stations, fewer networks in it. This makes the project cheaper.

Now in France they have come to the understanding that they need to stop the growth of cities. Why build houses on agricultural land, even if France is rich in it? After all, it depletes our soil. That is why we are developing projects that involve dense development of existing city blocks. Like, for example, in Nice.

The first phase of the Nice Meridia project involves the development of 24 hectares - a site in the heart of the future "Ecocity" of Nice, near the "Grand Arena" (when built, it will be the largest business center in southern Europe). There will be 2,100 homes, primarily intended for students and employees of research companies.

- How do you build public-private partnerships?

- It's not easy. Urban studies assumes that society bears responsibility for urban development projects. Previously, such responsibility was borne exclusively by the state as a global institution. But in the last 30 years, capitals, municipalities or agglomerations, such as, for example, the French Riviera, have been playing an increasingly important role. They are burdened with solving urban problems - infrastructure, transport, etc. Cities themselves decide what and how to build. To solve these problems, they can manage taxes, receive subsidies from the state and funds from private developers, which I mentioned earlier.

- Is the project in Nice one of your bureau’s largest orders?

- There are more. The largest one, which we are currently working on, is our participation in Grand Paris (in particular, the bureau has done a study of the territorial grid of Ile-de-France, i.e. the small territorial units around which the daily life of the region is organized. - Vedomosti).

We designed an eco-district for Rennes, the capital of Brittany: by 2050, it should have new housing for more than 50,000 residents. Rennes is currently a low-density city, and we decided to “reinforce” its center. For an architect, this is not a flashy project, but it offers ample opportunities for experimentation and innovation. The new district is like a small city. It will also be based on the principles of sustainable development. There will be a metro, express buses, even faster than the metro. And there will be 200 hectares of parks surrounding the university campus. Not regular, like in Versailles, but natural.

Another important problem that we have to solve is the development of alternative energy sources.

- Our developers are calling on the state to rein in natural monopolies.

- But monopolies are the state itself. Until now, the law obliged any local energy producer to sell it to the state monopoly or use it themselves. To allow energy producers to sell it locally, we need special operators who could collect and preserve it for future consumers. "Storage", if you like - there are many technologies for this. For example, in Paris, there is a network of Autolib (short-term rental of electric cars - Vedomosti), it could become such an "energy storage", accumulating it in the batteries of electric cars. We need to "uncork" natural monopolies. In my opinion, this is a great business model for the world, but what needs to be done to make it a reality? There is no obvious answer to this question.

- Would you be interested in developing urban projects in Russia?

- For now we are working on one private project in Kaliningrad. It is not me who is working on it, but the employees of my bureau.

We are, of course, interested in working abroad, but primarily in large, complex projects that combine housing, commercial space, work places, etc. - we can do this better than anyone. Although we can build buildings and know how they function, we prefer to fit the mass of buildings into the environment.

But so far we don't have such projects abroad, everything is in France. Last year we tried to work in Saudi Arabia, participated in a competition. It was a huge project - $40 million. The organizers of the competition told us that our project was the best, but they were used to working with Americans. It was a difficult experience. Businessmen from Saudi Arabia have a lot of money and a lot of ambition, but it is impossible to negotiate with them. We could not understand what they really want. You need to be in the know, but communicating through an interpreter, it is impossible to understand all the nuances. But in France, the rules of the game are absolutely clear to us.

- Should modern architecture be beautiful or practical?

- The Roman architect Vitruvius described the basic principles of architecture back in the 1st century BC: beauty and convenience, among other things. And longevity. Although I personally think that it is better for your creation to be practical. I am not interested in working for architectural almanacs, inventing something mind-blowing. If I have to choose between the convenience of future residents and the beauty of the building, I will choose people.

Interview: Practical Architect