Elliott Laffitte becomes the new President of the A26 architecture agency

An expert in housing and mixed programs

A graduate of the Paris-Villemin School of Architecture and a graduate of the University of Houston (Texas), Elliott Laffitte joined the Atelier BLM agency of Lionel Blancard de Léry and Jacques Mouzon in 1998, with whom he joined in 2006.

In the meantime, he flew to New York for his first experience with the CICOGNANI – KALLA Architects agency, specializing in high-end residential properties, then spent a year in Rio de Janeiro with a Brazilian agency with whom he still collaborates today.

Elliott Laffitte quickly turned to urban planning and residential projects, alternating between collective, semi-collective and individual housing projects and guided by the desire to respond to changing lifestyles (assisted residences, housing adapted to seniors, single-parent families, coliving, etc.). He then developed an approach centered on the user and their needs, whether in public or private spaces.

In 2008, the three partners opened a subsidiary in the South of France and diversified their activities by signing mixed real estate programs, equipment (extension of the boarding lounge at Terminal 1 of Nice Côte d'Azur airport), offices and even senior residences.

In 2012, Atelier BLM and five other specialist firms joined forces to create the A26 architecture firm. That same year, Elliott Laffitte became Associate Managing Director of the new entity, which then had nearly one hundred employees.

Thirteen years later, Elliott Laffitte became president of A26, which is one of the ten largest French agencies with 180 employees spread across several French cities (Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon, Blois, Aix-en-Provence, etc.).

“Placing people at the heart of our thinking”

The new president of A26 thanked the agency's teams for their trust and presented his vision and strategic priorities for the future.

"For me, architecture has always been a question of women and men, and that's why I want to place people at the heart of our approach," announced Elliott Laffitte. "Firstly, because today, thanks to our internalization policy, we are fortunate to be able to count on 180 employees who represent all the professions of design and execution. And it is from the sum of all these individual expertises that we draw our first uniqueness." He therefore wishes to test and implement new work organizations to go even further in terms of transversality and the development of employee skills.

"Secondly, our approach is also characterized by the desire to always adapt to the environments of the projects on which we position ourselves. It is therefore essential to continue to strengthen our ties with local stakeholders, who know their territory, its resources and its dynamics, to preserve our ability to make lace." For Elliott Laffitte, it will therefore be a question of relying on the territorial network of the agency, currently present in around ten cities, to develop synergies and create spaces for exchange between stakeholders in construction and regional planning.

"Finally, we must remain attentive to our fellow citizens to continue developing projects that are intended to last. As architects, we must indeed integrate our practices into a more sustainable approach, by questioning, for example, the adaptability of our projects in the face of climate change and societal developments, or by favoring the reconversion of an existing building rather than systematically resorting to new construction, which consumes natural soils," says Elliott Laffitte.

The A26 architectural firm: a unique model that focuses on multidisciplinarity and internalization

The A26 agency was born in 2012 from the merger of six architectural firms who decided to pool their expertise. The agency is thus structured around 8 areas of expertise: Learning (campuses, schools, training centers), Research (laboratories), Entertainment (tourism, hospitality), Entrepreneurship (commerce, logistics, data centers), Living (housing, serviced residences, urban planning), Performance (sports facilities), Protection (SDIS, gendarmerie barracks, courthouses) and Care (Hospitals, medical-social, psychiatry).

At the same time, A26 has chosen to integrate all the design and execution professions: architects, urban planners, economists, landscapers, engineers, designers... A strategic vision that does not prevent the agency from approaching external parties to enrich its projects.

This ability to combine expertise and foster dialogue between disciplines allows A26 to position itself in global markets, both in France and internationally. Above all, this organizational model brings agility to the agency, which can more easily propose mixed-use programs on the scale of a building or a neighborhood. In an era of land sobriety, this strategy of interconnecting skills also favors the design of reversibility projects.

A26 is ranked 7th architectural agency in France by D'A magazine and is among the top 100 worldwide.