TITAN sees architecture as a situated practice, shaped by the specific conditions of a place, its layers of time, and the people who inhabit it. The studio develops a sober, inventive approach, firmly grounded in reality. At the centre of this work is the transformation of existing buildings. Whether protected or not, heritage is not treated as a backdrop to be preserved, but as a resource to be reactivated. This position has led TITAN to work across a broad range of cultural, museum, public, and everyday programmes. Working with the existing fabric becomes a creative tool: a way to extend uses, reveal the qualities of a site, and reduce environmental impact. Rather than rebuilding, TITAN seeks to repair, adapt, and transform. Each project is approached as a living ecosystem, attentive to resources, material cycles, and the intelligence present in each situation. To build well is to work with what is there, and to turn its constraints into the starting point for invention.
TITAN was founded in Nantes in 2011 by Mathieu Barré, François Guinaudeau, and Romain Pradeau, all trained at the Nantes School of Architecture. Its name pays tribute to the monumental cranes of the Île de Nantes, markers of an industrial heritage that the studio reinterprets through sensitive, context-driven works.
TITAN’s architecture is closely connected to the world of art. Each project is conceived as an open framework, shaped by aesthetic, poetic, and cultural dimensions. Cinema holds a particular place in this approach, influencing both the way spaces are designed and the way they are represented, through framing, rhythm, sequence, and atmosphere. The images produced by the studio do more than show architecture: they tell stories, giving each project a narrative and immersive dimension.
Since 2016, R&D has been central to the studio’s practice. Experiments with materials, construction processes, ways of inhabiting, and environmental strategies inform an approach recognised through the French Research Tax Credit.
Among TITAN’s major projects are the École des Beaux-Arts de Saint-Nazaire, the rehabilitation of the former Maison de la Culture in Bourges as part of Bourges European Capital of Culture 2028, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. TITAN’s work has received several awards, including the Équerre d’Argent, the Médaille d’Architecture Prix Delarue, the AJAP, and the Barbara Cappochin International Architecture Award.
+33 259 164 996
contact@titan.archi
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Nantes - France