He is passionate about the Italian Renaissance, Palladian architecture, and is obsessed with perfect volumetry and the splendor of palaces without artifice. He is also passionate about ancient books and architectural treatises.
Maxime d’Angeac, a qualified architect, began his career by creating scenography with Hilton McConnico for Daum and Hermès. Since he founded his agency thirty years ago, he has always approached his work with an emphasis on the plan, to which is added the work of light and attention to detail. I’m not a custom architect,” he says, “I work to the measure of my clients. The man knows how to take risks while reassuring, refusing any decorative demonstration: “It seems to me more interesting to create living environments than decorations”.
In his creations, he manages everything from A to Z, from the drawing to the purchase of works of art. “In this job, there is a mixture of combat and romance. The fight to overcome the specifications, the whims; the romanticism to keep the part of dream, the artistic side.
And the architect knows about fighting: a second dan black belt in krav-maga, he trains daily in MMA. A salutary duality that he finds as well in the realization of a private residence as in the construction of an operating room at the American Hospital.
As a cerebral person, the project must touch him culturally. “I need certain points of intersection with the client. I want the project to be rich for everyone in its cultural purpose.” His style…it’s him. The purity, the detail, the quality of the plan: he is an architect with a readable style. And never is the line, confused with perfection, defined in opposition to another. With a biblical simplicity, it is drawn in the right place, weighed in its execution. “My style is me. My thought, my desire, my ideas. It evolves over time. It is linked to the circulations, to the volumes, to the way the light falls on a wall”.
The argument may be disconcerting to some, but if Maxime d’Angeac had had to choose a profession, he would probably not have chosen architecture. For this discipline is not, in his eyes, a profession. This purist prefers to live it as “a skill, a talent” and above all “a vocation, without which one cannot do anything, nor learn”. Hence his tireless propensity to soak up everything around him. And to make of his multiple experiences the soil of his know-how, in order to be able to anticipate at best the social, technical and historical evolutions which, by ricochets, are read until his drawings with the irreproachable finish.
Composed of experienced architects and interior designers, the studio’s in-house team is involved in every stage of project development and construction.
In each project undertaken, the MDA studio surrounds itself with a team of experienced craftsmen and consultants who share the same vision, and whose technical competence in a given field, allows the realization of innovative ideas.
Maxime d’Angeac takes pleasure in creating a fine selection of specialists around each project to provide the perfect answer to the question.