Françoise Hélène Jourda Principal Jourda Architectes Paris

(born 1955, graduated in 1979) Françoise-Hélène Jourda was recognized early as a figure of contemporary French architecture, from its beginning in Lyon, where she creates her practice. Today, continues and develops her activity in her practice Jourda Architectes Paris. Her goal was to encourage her partners and clients to live differently, under different conditions, in order to stop harming the entire environment. In order to do so all of one’s architectural practice has to be defined. Her daily actions and even her teachings at the Vienna Technical University bear this out. Involved in her practice and teaching, she is taking into account the geography, the climate and existing local resources, it means working primarily with renewable materials, minimizing the use of materials that generate pollution in their production, it also involves recovering rainwater, banning air conditioning, treating the building’s shells as efficiently as possible, using non-polluting energies, solar energy, photovoltaic cells etc. Despite their technological sophistication, her buildings prove that bold design can be produced through ecological solution.It is first and foremost a humanistic approach. High-tech is not part of her vocabulary.The reality of her work is well anchored in society and culture. “The architect is not a designer, not a creator of images, of shells, of dresses, of skirts around a building. The architect is there to ensure that people live more happily tomorrow than yesterday. In any cases, this is what motivates me.