Identity
Rooting

The story of a project’s development is not continuous but rather discontinuous, like all chronologies. It is these ruptures, these jolts that lead to the development of projects rich in meaning. The architect is not the one who draws a fixed project, but, like a sponge, absorbs and returns an evolving vision.

Reinterpret the context
from the grand to the small story
to weave the project’s common thread

Anchored in our culture of keywords, the architectural project is worked through key images. These images question the project through poetic contributions and nourish it throughout its development. Architecture puts into perspective the container (the building), its content, and its context; it gives meaning, taste to what was originally just an equation of surfaces and costs. This work involves attentive listening to the place (recognizing vegetal or built patterns) and users (discovering characters and practices). From these emerge symbols, resonating with other cultural references to which they are attached. The project, a “memory factory” and a “form factory,” participates in the sedimentation of history.

Prospecting, anticipating
and providing a sustainable response

In a genuine sustainable development approach, new foundations need to be built. The building is only one link in an ecosystem that exceeds it: place, time, and function.
Place. By taking into account the site (material, orientation, topography), the building gradually adjusts to it. The project is conceived as a bandage for a larger territory. Local materials are favored, depending on the balance between gray energy (production) and consumed energy (transport).

• Time
  Through architecture, current constraints (skills of companies, means of project management) are inscribed in a global life cycle. The history of places is reused to embroider with it. Through its sustainable design, the building also inspires the future: intermediate spaces, possible future extensions.

• Function
  According to the user’s needs, choices are unique: for example, a heavy passive system or a light bio-climatic system. This work favors low-tech, by diverting recognized technologies to better serve an economical implementation.

Propose a relevant strategy
and shaping

The architectural project integrates questions related to related fields. If architecture depends on urban planning, urban planning depends on mobility, mobility depends on the economy, the economy on sociology. The project brings added value at the urban, economic, and societal levels; it is first and foremost a development strategy. Following Cicero’s precept “The face is the image of the soul,” this strategy must therefore propose a pertinent face in everyone’s eyes. Aware of the symbolic charge of architectural forms (for a child, his house is summed up in the stereotype: double-pitched roof, windows, and door), icon-architecture, the project assumes or transgresses, but always favors a raw aspect, revealing the internal forces of the building (structure and networks). The physical relationship of the user to the building (handles and handrails participate in it), sensation-architecture, is also assumed, with the choice to favor craftsmanship over industrial production.

Profil
Se révéler

Après un parcours formateur au sein d’agences reconnues, Mélaine Ferré décide de fonder la sarl mfa en 2012 à Nantes. Ayant à cœur la place des usagers, les fondamentaux de l’agence sont de proposer une stratégie pertinente pour chaque programme, d’être à l’écoute du contexte pour tisser le fil rouge du projet, et d’anticiper les besoins futurs pour apporter une réponse durable. L’architecture que nous pratiquons n’est pas un dessin figé mais restitue une vision évolutive. L’agence, composée de 4 architectes, est un atelier de projet ou nous aimons nous confronter à des projets atypiques : une ambition environnementale, un souhait des clients unique, un terrain arboré etc. Ce sont ces données d’entrées qui nous inspirent.


Conscient de notre responsabilité vis-à-vis des générations futures, nous sommes attentifs à l’impact global de chaque projet. C’est ainsi, que nos recherches portent sur les sujets suivants principes bioclimatiques, structures bois ou préfabriqués, low-tech – sobriété d’entretien, choix d’énergies renouvelables, maitrise de l’impact carbone, et partenariats locaux. Ces remises en question régulières des habitudes de construction et des contraintes réglementaires servent la qualité du projet.

Team
Brainstorming

Mélaine Ferré
Architect DE-HMONP - Manager MFA

Clémence Jeandot
Architect HMONP - Project Manager

Aurore Haudry
Architect HMONP - Project Manager

Since 2016
Kim Fouqueron Student, ENSA Nantes Damien Verstaen Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Marie Rondin Student, ENSA Nantes Julie Antoine Architect ADE Valentin Rochard Architect ADE Tristan Salliou Student, ENSA Rouen Morgane Tiroir Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Angèle Parcé Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Léa Gautier Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Perette Jusforgues Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Giulia Sassier Bettoni Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Zoé Chevances Student, ENSA Nantes Clotilde Menet Architect ADE, ENSA Nantes Oriane Jan Student, ENSA Nantes François Massin-Castan Architect ADE, ENSAP Lille Louis Portal Student, ENSA Nantes

Distinctions
Shining

Awards

2023 40 under 40 – European Architecture and Design Award - Winner
2021 AVivre Prize – Renovation Winner
2016 National Wood Construction Prize – 1st Prize
2016 Young Architects and Landscape Architects of the Loire Region 2016 – Winner
2016 Elementary Architectures – Algeco: “Transit 2025” – 3rd Prize
2013 Europan-12: “The adaptable city” – Special Mention
2012 W Prize: “Re-generation Venezia” – Winner

Publications

2023 Dec. Inside an Architect’s Mind - Podcast
2023 Dec. PIRM West-France Journal, “The Pirmil - les Isles ZAC invents the “city of tomorrow”“
2022 Nov. “Contemporary Architecture Guide St-Nazaire>Nantes”
2022 Jul. À Vivre Special Issue#54, “100 French Agencies”
2021 Dec. TOU À Vivre #121
2021 Apr. VAL Le Moniteur, “The first low-carbon housing…”
2020 Dec. MON A+D, N°54
2019 Sept MON AMC, Project reference “Products” Vertigo
2017 Oct. TRAN algeco.fr, interview on modular construction
2017 Aug. HM West-France Journal, Inside/Outside article
2016 Oct. TRAN algeco.fr, interview “Transit places…”
2016 Sept. HM lemoniteur.fr, “National wood construction prize: eight 1st prizes”
2016 Jan. JAPL Place Publique #55, “2016 award winners of young architects of the Loire region”
2015 Oct. HM amc-archi.com, “mfa – House in Nantes – JAPL 2015”
2015 Sept. JAPL amc-archi.com, “Discover the winners of the JAPL 2015”
2015 Jun PRE ouest-france.fr, “The future of Preux invited to the neighborhood party”
2014 May E12 Europan 12, The adaptable city – Results catalogue
2012 Dec. E12 Le Moniteur Hebdo, “Europan 12 awards: 21 winners for France”
2012 Jul. PWV lemoniteur.fr, “W Prize 2012 winners: four 2nd prizes and nine mentions”

Exhibitions

2024 Pirmil B8 “First Step Aside, Pirmil-les-Isles” - Architecture House
2023 40 under 40 – European Architecture and Design Award
2016 National Wood Construction Prize – Nantes
2016 JAPL - Young Architects and Landscape Architects of the Loire Region 2016 – ENSA – Nantes
2015 Europan: From competition to commission – ENSA – Rouen
2014 “No one is a prophet 2014” – Nantes
2014 “Europan 12 Results” Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine – Paris
2012 “Re-Generation Venezia”, award winners of the W Prize 2012 – Venice