CUT Architectures

(Image credit: David Foessel)

Cut Architectures is a partnership founded in 2008 between Benjamin Clarens and Yann Martin. 'Matter is our utensil,' they say, 'we always select a limited amount of materials in one project and investigate ways to use it, transform it or take benefit of it in a corrupted manner in order to achieve a palpable project one can feel, observe and practice.' CUT's Timber House in Meudon, near Paris, is a case in point, a big angular extension that takes its cue from the existing house, creating a new form that doesn't overshadow the original. Their combination of contemporary with vernacular never shirks from confrontation but doesn't feel forced or out of place. Splashes of colour and a reverence for original materials and forms maintain an intimate, human scale - the partners remember their first project, a small pavilion for a garden festival, fondly. 'Once achieved we felt for the first time the unique feeling of standing in front of something we have been projecting in our minds for months.' For now they're seeking new challenges with clients old and new. 'We love to be surprised.'
www.cut-architectures.com

Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).