Gilles Perraudin, architecte libéral, cofondateur et président, Atelier Architecture Perraudin
Along with wood and earth, stone remains a material of the future: abundant, accessible and endlessly reusable for sustainable, solid architecture. Since the 1990s, Gilles Perraudin has been exploring the infinite qualities of solid stone, enhanced by an architectural style that is contemporary, timeless and enduring. In the same way, his recent projects in Senegal honour another ancestral and inexhaustible material: raw earth.
« I've often noticed that visitors like to touch the stone when they come to visit my wineries. I realised that the stone from which the globe and most of the planets are made was formed in the same construction process as the living organism to which we belong. We were born of the same material: stone.
In stone there are universes. In the stone of the Lubéron, there are galaxies, white and red dwarfs and interstellar whirlpools. One day, I photographed all these ‘singularities’. They were comparable to the fabulous images sent back to us by space telescopes. Even shooting stars can be seen, as a streak of sunlight glides stealthily over a sliver of quartz.
Each stone is a jewel. An eternal treasure. The secrets of the universe are in the stone we caress every day.
‘In a block of stone, there may be a lake with fish’ - Leibnitz.»
Gilles Perraudin, extract from ‘Les jours sont ronds’, Essais collection, published by Caryatides, May 2024
Also worth reading:
‘Trilogy: Three architectures in stone - Gilles Perraudin'
Text by Olivier Namias, photographs by Luc Boegly, published by Avenir Radieux, October 2024
Introduction to Gilles Perraudin:
DPLG architect, HQE engineer, chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite, president and founder of the Académie de la pierre association, Gilles Perraudin has been internationally recognised for his commitment to sustainable, environmentally-friendly architecture for 48 years.
Fascinated by vernacular architecture and the relationship between man, climate and habitat, in 1980 he won the first European passive solar energy competition with a house incorporating principles that would mark his future projects, notably the concept of the ‘microclimatic envelope’. From the 1990s onwards, solid stone became the true inspiration for his architectural expression, which was born above all of qualitative and aesthetic considerations.
He favours natural, raw materials from local and renewable resources, thereby limiting energy consumption.
In order to pass on his know-how and skills, Gilles Perraudin and his son Jean-Manuel Perraudin founded the AAP agency - Atelier Architecture Perraudin - in Lyon in 2017. The firm continues to build on its rich heritage, particularly in the field of solid stone and timber construction. In 2024, under the presidency of Gilles Perraudin, the firm was awarded the Grand Prix national de l'architecture, in recognition of its commitment to low-carbon architecture that saves materials and energy.
At the same time, Gilles Perraudin continues to work on projects as a freelance architect, dividing his time between his studio in Vauvert, in the Gard region of France, and his studio in Djilor Djidiack, Senegal, where he devotes particular attention to building with unbaked earth.