Yves Dessuant
born on 28th February 1958
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Architect, Program designer, Teacher
President of the Institute of Programming in Architecture and Development
from 1998 to 2004
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As soon as he became qualified in 1983 (studies at the School of Architecture UPA n°1 in Paris), Yves Dessuant collaborated in the planning of the Carrefour de la Communication in Paris la Defense, with Francois Lombard, planner of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The following year – and until 1987 – he worked for the SCET Inter (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations) as assistant architect planner and satisfactorily concluded, including giving assistance to the main contractor, all the preliminary study and planning phases concerning the construction of the University of Arbil in Iraq (12,000 students, 280,000 m2). After collaboration for three years in the offices of P.A.S. ("Programmation Aménagement Systèmes") with Francois Lombard once again, he founded his own company s.a.r.l. PROGRAMME in 1990, which he has managed and of which he has been the driving force ever since, the aim of this company being the improvement of the conditions in which buildings are born and live by means of more in-depth preliminary reflection on them. Programming activity comprises three main aspects :
- assistance for the client in defining his objectives and expressing his requirements (pre-operational, feasibility, pre-planning studies, completion of planning scenarios, help with decision-making, production of plans, organisation of architects’ competitions…),
- assistance for the design team (architects and engineers) in understanding and translating these objectives and requirements (production/writing of support plans for the study phases, and also participation in the studies of the designer for certain functional areas where particular skills are involved),
- the organisation of dialogue between all the partners involved in realisation of the edifice, or of the development project (production of documents, putting into place of procedures for the main contractor to make choices, perfecting of tools for dialogue and common working methods during the study phases ).
The company claims that eclecticism is one of the conditions of intellectual enrichment, which allows a wide viewing angle on the subjects tackled. Thus the studies which we have made relate to very different fields, including cultural infrastructure (theatres, art centres, libraries, ...), higher education, social infrastructures, headquarters offices, industrial buildings for precision manufacturing, urbanism and landscaping, and others. We have been involved in studies, program design and organization of architectural competitions for (among others) :
- the new school of architecture of Marne la Vallée,
- the national college of art of Fresnoy in Tourcoing (Studio National des Arts Contemporains),
- the expansion of the Cité Internationale de Lyon (congress center),
- the Euromed urban project in Marseille,
- the Archeologic Park in Alesia,
- the International Expo 2004 in Paris (in collaboration with the Bureau International des Expositions),
- The program of the Abu Dhabi Media Zone Master Plan.
These projects have also allowed the company to be fortunate enough to extend its collaboration with B. Tschumi.
- the Zénith in Caen (rock concert hall)
- the National Cultural Centre of Tunis,
- the Cité des Arts de la Rue in Marseille (Urban Arts Creation Centre),
- the "City of Creative Industries", in Paris la Défense (large project for creation and rehearsal in al artistic disciplines),
- the French exhibition pavilion in the Zaragossa World Fair 2008,
- the French exhibition pavilion in the Shanghai World Fair 2010,
- four clock and watch-makers manufactures in Switzerland for Cartier international and the Richemont Group,
- the Cartier Headquarters in Paris and in Amsterdam,
- the Richemont Group headquarters in Geneva, and in New-York,
- Cartier shops in Paris (Champs-Élysées, rue de la Paix),
- Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in New-York (5th Avenue),
- College of Cinema and Visual Art in Marrakech,
- the Pinault Foundation for Contemporary Art in Boulogne (museum of modern art designed by Tadao Ando),
- the libraries of the new Université du Littoral (North of France), of the University of Grenoble (laws and literature), or Bayonne (laws and literature),
- the regional municipal libraries of Limoges, Châteauroux, Verdun, Fontainebleau, Mérignac,
- the restructuring of the schools of architecture of Paris la Défense (Nanterre) and Paris la Villette.
Yves Dessuant furthermore teaches programming in different places (mainly in French Schools of Architecture, the International Academy of Parks and Gardens and Landscaping (Chaumont/Loire), the Ministry of Public Buildings Training Centres, Paris-Dauphine University, École Spéciale d'Architecture, …).
Publications :
- "Building a university library : From design to realisation" Éditions du Cercle de la Librairie (collected works),
- "Guide for the choice of a program designer for public and private principals" (IPAA - 1995)
- "The interspace : concerning the space for the event and the event in the space"
Interview with Bernard Tschumi, in "The place, the stage, the hall, the town" (Theatre studies centre – Catholic University of Louvain, 1997)
- "Places of education : typology and planning" Technology and Architecture Review - 1999
- "Scholastic architecture : the necessity for involvement of the actors :" Review of the French Association of Educational Administrators – July 2000.
- collaboration to a number of booklets published by the MIQCP (Mission Interministérielle des Constructions Publiques), concerning programming and specific processes such as Definition studies.