26.RENCONTRE i nt e r vi e w girl but, in the end, I entered the competitive exam for an architecture school.” Unless Odile <strong>De</strong>cq’s rebellious streak comes from an unfortunate phrase pronounced by an architect friend of her parents’ when she knew she had been accepted: “Wonderful news! We need girls in architecture – you can design kitchens and cupboards for us…”. Rome, Tangiers, Beijing… Regardless of the source, thirty years later, Odile <strong>De</strong>cq is anything but confined. Since she graduated from her architecture school in 1978, she set up an architecture agency that soon got her talked about. From the end of the 1980s, after winning the competition organised by the Banque Populaire de l’Ouest for its social and administrative centre in Rennes, the Odile <strong>De</strong>cq-Benoît Cornette* agency has acquired international renown. It was the concept and the design, choice and way of combining the materials in this project that made all the difference. “We were the outsiders. If we won this contract, it is because we were the token young architects in the competition,” specifies Odile <strong>De</strong>cq. A few years later, in 1996, the ODBC agency won another prestigious contract for the control centre for the A14 motorway and its viaduct in Nanterre. Odile <strong>De</strong>cq thus put together a totally innovative project, putting the control centre not on the ground but on high, on the deck of the motorway footbridge. “Thanks to this project, we have participated in many conferences abroad, whereas in France, we come over as being loose canons,” explains Odile <strong>De</strong>cq who now has projects in progress all over the world: the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome with Burkhard Morass, the Maas Tower in Rotterdam, Pavillon 8 for <strong>GL</strong> <strong>events</strong> at the Lyon Confluent (see inset p. 26), the harbour station in the port of Tangiers, or the Art Hotel in Beijing… Odile <strong>De</strong>cq owes her international success to her natural sense of curiosity, amongst other things: “In the 1980s, with my partner, we spent our time going to London for music, but we also took the time to go and look at the transformation of the Docklands in the city: the metal structures, etc. We sniffed around any worksite we could find.” “I am deeply suspicious of ideologies!” “Architecture is a profession where you have to be tenacious and strong. Women tend to opt for negotiation, whereas in this profession you have to dare to confront people,” claims Odile <strong>De</strong>cq. It has to be said that in this respect, she had excellent role models. Since May 1968, at UP6, her architecture school, the tradition consisted in questioning the role of Art Schools. The teachers, all with names like Castro or Le Dantec, were all experienced rebels from the May 68 demonstrations. “It is almost certainly for this reason that I never really had any specific influences or masters. Anything but! I am deeply suspicious of ideologies, movements, trends. Of course, I look at what is being done elsewhere in the world, but I remain free.” In retrospect, in her opinion, it was precisely this freedom, this independence in her formative years that have made her what she is today. “It strengthened my character. And that was a good thing. In architecture, you need both talent and personality. Today, there is a tendency to confine architecture students whereas, on the contrary, they need to be given help in developing their personality”. This is a principle that she is trying to put into practice at the school of which she has been the director for a year. And what school is this? It is the oldest architecture school in France, the Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture (ESA) in Paris, founded by the famous French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) at a time when there was a real struggle against the academicism of … Art Schools, what else?! * The name of her partner, with whom she worked until his death in 1998. Lyon : Un projet tout en verre pour 2010 Dès la fin des années 1980, en remportant le concours organisé par la Banque Populaire de l’Ouest pour son Centre administratif et social de Rennes, le cabinet Odile <strong>De</strong>cq-Benoît Cornette acquiert une renommée internationale. Since the end of the 1980s, when the Odile <strong>De</strong>cq-Benoît Cornette agency won the competition organised by the Banque Populaire de l’Ouest for its social and administrative centre in Rennes, the agency has constantly gained in international renown. Situé au Sud de la Presqu’île lyonnaise, Lyon Confluences est aujourd’hui un projet urbain <strong>majeur</strong> en Europe. À terme, il va permettre à Lyon de doubler la superficie de son hyper-centre grâce au nouvel aménagement d’un territoire longtemps consacré à l’industrie et aux transports. Au total, trois nouveaux pavillons vont être construits. Architectes et paysagistes se sont emballés pour ce projet sans nul autre pareil. Odile <strong>De</strong>cq est de ceux-là. Pour le Pavillon 8, au sud du Port Rambaud, qui abritera notamment le futur siège de <strong>GL</strong> <strong>events</strong>, elle a proposé un bâtiment qui réinterprète l’architecture industrielle et s’intègre au paysage urbain grâce au travail, sur la façade, de l’artiste suisse Felice Varini. « Nous avons poussé le plus loin possible le principe du bâtiment transparent, tout en verre. Cela donne des façades un peu magiques. Sans compter les opportunités que cela offre en termes de développement durable, d’économie d’énergie. Ce qui est à l’œuvre aujourd’hui, à Lyon, en termes d’architecture est formidable », affirme Odile <strong>De</strong>cq. Lyon: A project made of glass for 2010 Situated to the south of the Lyon Presqu’île, Lyon Confluences is now one of Europe’s major urban projects. It will ultimately allow Lyon to double the surface area of its hyper-centre, thanks to new organisation of land long left to industry and transport. In total, three new pavilions will be built. Architects and landscape gardeners have really gone to town on this project unlike any other. Odile <strong>De</strong>cq is one of them. For Pavilion 8, at the south of Port Rambaud and which will ultimately house the future headquarters of <strong>GL</strong> <strong>events</strong>, she has proposed a building that reinterprets industrial architecture and fits into the urban landscape thanks to the work on the façade by the Swiss artist, Felice Varini. “We have pushed the concept of the totally transparent, glass building as far as we can. The result is rather magical facades. Without counting the opportunities they provide in terms of sustainable development and energy saving. What is happening today in Lyon, in architectural terms, is truly wonderful,” affirms Odile <strong>De</strong>cq. <strong>GL</strong> <strong>events</strong> magazine - Octobre/October 2009
de s t in at ion s destination.27 BRUXELLES VILLAGE EUROPÉEN Capitale de l’Europe depuis plus de cinquante ans, Bruxelles est indéniablement identifiée comme un lieu de pouvoir. Mais elle devient de plus en plus une ville où il fait bon vivre. Les plus beaux monuments anciens, concentrés dans un périmètre réduit, se laissent découvrir à bicyclette ou à pied. The most beautiful old monuments, all situated within a small radius, can easily be discovered by bicycle or on foot. Octobre/October 2009 - <strong>GL</strong> <strong>events</strong> magazine
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