Architecture Competition Red Square Tolerance Pavilion 3rd prize winner - Nicolas Souchko

Please take this opportunity to get introduced to the 3rd prize winner of Red Square Tolerance Pavilion competition - Nicolas Souchko from France!

SOUCHKO ARCHITECTURE is an architectural firm established in December 2014, based in Lyon, France, that I have founded, being an architect. My career begins with five years of training at the ENSAL architecture school. After working on shorter assignments for Philippe Rahm architectural studio and for Building Design Partnership, I had a longer collaboration with Atelier Zündel and Cristea in Paris. I was responsible for the contests projects there. Following this experience, I went on to collaborate with Atelier du Pont architecture agency before creating SOUCHKO ARCHITECTURE in Lyon. 

Souchko Architecture is currently involved in different projects such as a health care center, and housing units. The office covers every scale of a project, and there are no secondary projects for us: each project has to stand as a headlight project of the office.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture is probably one of the most complex form of arts. It is not just about giving a practical and aesthetical solution to a program. Architecture is the answer to a multitude of desires and restraints. The architect’s desire must be perfectly tuned to the given context and its economical, social and urban parameters. Souchko Architecture’s ambition is to handle contextualized architecture with the greatest care and always go farther then what we’re expected to.

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

As an architect, when you work as an employee for an agency, frustration is slowly building. Your ideas are filtered, sometimes saved, sometimes not. To take part in architecture vision competitions allows one to bring its architectural ambition face to face with various diversified projects, inviting one to explore ideas more freely and deeper than for usual agencies projects. The other goal behind taking part in these competitions is to build a base of architecture projects that will promote and stand for my agency. 

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?

Taking part in architecture vision competitions is the best way to promote your work. If you are chosen as a laureate, it will give you more credibility as well as more confidence in your own work. But whatever the results are, it is always a great pleasure to create and design a project, it is the best privilege of our job.