Maud Laronze

“The journey in architecture is an everyday struggle, it has lot of defeat and wins that you have to digest in order to learn and grow. Be brave, humble, and confident in what you believe in. Do it for the better. It is ok that you don’t know. This is the everyday process of life. Just do it.”

Photo By: Sarah Balhadère

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in architecture/design?

I studied architecture in Grenoble School of Architecture in my hometown of the French Alps. I had been interesting in foreign and ancient design, which was sparked by visiting Europe through the years. In 2012, I studied for a year in an international exchange program in Montevideo, Uruguay, which was the greatest experience of my life. I started to work on my own in 2016, a year and a half after getting my diploma. I have been working for three years in Grenoble, France, and founded my company MDLRZ in 2019, the same year I moved to Paris.

What was your first introduction to the field? 

My mother had always been really interested in decoration . I guess now, with an analytic point of view, I would say she always had a great talent of defining comfortable and stunning spaces to live. I have seen my home slowly transformed. As a result, design magazines had been the first press I had read. 

What about the industry enticed you to make it your career? 

I have a dreamer heart. Architecture has never simply been a field in which I wanted to work, it is a vocation. The more I was in the industry of construction, the less I was enticed by the field, as it is pretty aggressive. Before I studied architecture, I had the chance to train at Batiserf, one of the greatest engineering company in France. I saw a real perspective of listening and hardworking to make things in a good way. Then, after my 6 years in architecture school, I was in cabinetmaking at the Federation Compagnonnique des Métiers du Bâtiment, which is probably the most prestigious formation of craftsman in France over the years. There, I understood the dialogue and the exchanges we could make with passionated professional was the key to generate greater and better spaces and furnitures. I read Memories of an Engineer, from Peter Rice when I was in my 2nd year in architecture school, it resumed my excitement in believing.

What has been your biggest challenge in your career?

I had been working on my own for 4 years, I was at the beginning of my career.  Within this time, I understood that the difficulties were way more instructive than the celebrations.

In 2019, I had a few challanges, introducing me to what had been the more difficult challenge I had to solve for the moment : affirmation.

In September, I have been involved in my first trial. It is something that is common for an architect, which is considered in France as an high risk profession, since we are responsible over a great amount of money. I had bailiff knocking on my door announcing that I was summoned to the court. I was terrified, even if the subject of the convocation was absurdly light (detected problem over a threshold floor) and that I knew I wasn’t responsible for it. I had to breath deeply and carry on, while trying to sleep at night.

In December, I was threatened in Paris by an artisan I worked with on a project. Over his words, he wounded me not only over my architect position but also as a women. It frightened me so much that I saw myself passing roundabout paths to get home at night, checking everything to make sure he wasn’t following me. I was moreover in a state of shock, I had been working over the last 4 years in a very collaborative way with craftsman, especially in Grenoble, hand in hand with incredible people in the name of art. I never had to consider my gender in my job. I have always been working as an architect, not as a woman. I was still a small company, I run it by myself, and I really saw the limit of being alone in the process.

Those two experiences taught me that I will have to confront these kinds of issues, and that the answer to all this is to stay aligned with myself, whatever happen. It is hard to be an architect, hard to be an entrepreneur, and being a woman make it somehow kind of harder. But the result of the process is freedom over expression and self-realizations. Despite the difficulties, I encourage everyone, men and women, to take on such an experience.

Can you tell us the process behind what you designed. How do you approach each project?  

My designing process spans three levels. The industry of construction in Europe is one of polluting and consuming. Particular parts of France territory are beautiful due to their quantity of small villages over the countryside. While I lived in Uruguay, I had felt it was like a green country filled with wild territory and bubbles of civilizations that emerged here and there. When I went back to France it was the exact opposite. I had refused since then to participate to the massive expansion of the urbanization. My practice is always to build over existing construction, or a urbanized site.

As a teacher in the Architecture School of Grenoble, each year I meet the future architects of tomorrow. Economic performances is in the very heart of the design approach, which is great. However, I refuse this constraint to be the result of the final design. As architects, we have a responsibility to create spaces where generation of people will grow, live, and die.

As a result, I always try to act in the best interest of the location in the projects I am working on. I do this by using local craftsman, engineers, and resources. I have successful in introducing at least one local resource in every project I had worked on. The next big challenge I am currently working on is to work with less and less transformed resources to create interactive and ethical spaces.

What is one piece of advice you have for women entering the field? 

The journey in architecture is an everyday struggle, it has lot of defeat and wins that you have to digest in order to learn and grow. Be brave, humble, and confident in what you believe in. Do it for the better. It is ok that you don’t know. This is the everyday process of life. Just do it. 

And remember how lucky it is to take part and learn in such a magnificent field !