Romain
Cougnaud
Managing Architect of ARCAD Studio
The roots of a profession
Expertise born
in the field
Training
the eye and the hand
This integrity, combined with an inherent curiosity, has enabled me to continually push my reflective limits a little further. Working with raw materials—sand, cement, wood, stone—contributes to the “education” of the eye and the sense of touch.
This work, which is relatively demanding, shapes you and leads the mind to seek how it can optimize the effort of execution without affecting the final result, without diminishing the outcome.
Little by little, the questioning turns to understanding space and the issues associated with it, which requires developing skills in order to improve it more effectively.
Becoming an architect—why not?
A profession that enables creation: architecture is an art, and the architect must be creative. But why create? And what can one create?
Building is an intelligent art; it requires diverse abilities—observation, logic, technical expertise, and inventiveness.
For millennia, human beings have worked to improve their homes and their entire built environment, continually gaining comfort and autonomy, and developing ways of living that allow them not to be hungry, not to be cold, and to be in good health.
I believe that this is also why architecture draws on essential human values, and why it resonated with me so strongly. It reflects the result of an evolution in human knowledge and stimulates the development of intelligence in order to solve essential challenges.
Five years of study at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon, completed alongside a full-time job at Atelier S in Megève, then mainly at Haag&Baquet Architectes in Sallanches, enabled me to put things into practice and to work concretely on substantial projects.
Hotels, a high-mountain refuge (Le Couvercle), a wide variety of chalets, as well as public-access buildings and multi-family housing.
Today, I manage my own architecture firm and see it as an achievement—the logical continuation of a path that many describe as atypical—and one that will allow me to thrive professionally by drawing on the experience gained over the years.
