Our projects promote a contextual approach to ecology, emphasizing a material-based economy, local resources, and the exploration of innovative construction systems combined with traditional, even vernacular, materials.
For us, architecture is both a way of life and an art of building. Our projects enhance social and human interactions, shaping an architecture that expands possibilities and creates spatial systems designed for multiple uses.
We draw inspiration from the memory of places, weaving together traces of the past and collective imagination to craft meaningful narratives. Passionate about materials and their sensory and storytelling potential, we strive to merge technological innovation with artisanal craftsmanship.
Our projects propose alternative construction models that are both custom-made and industrialized. We explore the poetry of assembly and the enhancement of craftsmanship. The office defines itself as a “Manufacture of Architecture,” based on a systemic vision that merges architecture, engineering, construction, and advanced technology into a unified design.
For us, the exploration of materials, their inherent qualities, and their narrative potential has an ergonomic and holistic significance. Our architecture harmonizes with both the natural and built environments. It seeks the authenticity of what the material expresses: Immanence, memory, rootedness, and heritage.
We are particularly interested in the rituals embedded in the everyday experience of space—their ability to foster new ways of living together and inspire innovative architectural forms. Embracing the philosophy of Superstudio, we envision architecture as a space awaiting ceremonies.
Our architecture is guided by a poetic approach to assembly—a holistic vision that embraces diversity, engages with history and memory, and orchestrates structural and constructive systems to shape spatial compositions that celebrate cultural hybridity and multiplicity in all its forms.
Our Belcier site embraces diversity and the layering of uses, shaping a dynamic urban hub that attracts and connects. Designed as a vibrant, multi-purpose environment, it offers a rich mix of residential spaces, dining, sports facilities, waterfront activities, and outdoor padel courts, all within a carefully landscaped setting.
This project relies on off-site prefabrication and assembly techniques, integrating the construction system and the building envelope.
Creating beauty within beauty.
The project for the Hermès Metalwork Manufacture embraces a multi-layered ambition: to meet the exacting demands of a highly technical program structuring a fully controlled production chain, to showcase exceptional craftsmanship, and to engage in a dialogue with the territory of Champigny-sur-Marne through an urban, landscape and symbolic composition that reflects the timeless values of the House of Hermès.
The models, transformed into singular objects, stand here as fragments of architecture.
Isolated and illuminated, they reveal a heightened narrative of the project — a way of capturing its essence, its materiality and its breath, in a form that is freer and more sensitive than drawing or plan.
Swiss publisher Quart Verlag, through its international series De Aedibus International, has published a curated monograph featuring the latest projects by Mikou Studio.
76 pages, 119 images, 49 plans, German / French
Edited by Heinz Wirz
Introduction: Samia Henni in conversation with Salwa and Selma Mikou
ARTE TV’s TWIST program presents a special feature on Mikou Studio, highlighting our work, design philosophy, and vision of architecture.
Watch online or on our website.
