Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

A house in the Sun

Chicago architecture biennial 2025

Project	Location	Size	Status	Year
A house in the Sun	Chicago, US	1	Completed	2025
A short history of artificial light			Text	2012
Paris Internationale 2015	Paris, FR	1600	Completed	2015
Acoustic composition	Jūrmala, LV	9000	Competition	2011
Maison Al‑'Ula	Al-'Ula, Medina, SA	361	Competition	2019
Anabatic office	Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, CR	700	Competition	2011
Appartement Batignoles	Paris, FR	43	Completed	2013
Appartement Light Line	Paris, FR	51	Completed	2011
Appartement Montparnasse	Paris, FR	190	Completed	2008
Appartement P420	Bologna, IT	110	Completed	2019
Appartement rue Dieu	Paris, FR	83	Completed	2011
Appartement rue du Caire	Paris, FR	77	Unbuilt	2013
Appartement Saint‑Jacques	Paris, FR	62	Completed	2016
Appartement sliding wall	Paris, FR	55	Completed	2008
Appartement spectral	Levallois, FR	19	Completed	2013
Appartement Temple	Paris, FR	138	Completed	2018
Appartement two boxes	Paris, FR	39	Completed	2008
Appartement Vaneau	Paris, FR	109	Completed	2016
Atacama, architecture at the edge of physics	Atacama desert, CL		Teaching	2019
Avenue du Chateau	Meudon, FR	134	Completed	2016
Avenue Victoria	Paris, FR	25000	Ongoing	2021
Base nautique Jonction	Genève, CH	560	Competition	2023
Basic office	Paris, FR	54	Completed	2011
Boutique Kitsuné Boulevard	Paris, FR	250	Completed	2015
Boutique Le Gramme	Paris, FR	25	Unbuilt	2014
Boutique Sakina	Paris, FR	102	Unbuilt	2014
Built climates	Versailles, FR		Teaching	2015
Chalet Jurvielle	Jurvielle, FR	96	Unbuilt	2013
Chambres en décalage	Toulouse, FR	37	Unbuilt	2010
Château Malromé	Saint-André-du-Bois, FR	4000	Unbuilt	2014
Dans des matins sans âge et toujours recommencés			Text	2016
Detail, formulate, build	Versailles, FR		Teaching	2022
DJ Booth Badaboum	Paris, FR	10	Completed	2018
Ecole OLC	Onet-le-Château, FR	3800	Competition	2012
Ecole Verdeaux	Renens, CH	16100	Competition	2022
Galerie Ciaccia Levi	Paris, FR	120	Completed	2020
Gravir	Nancy, FR		Teaching	2016
Kraken Mare	Bruxelles, BE	2	Completed	2021
La mécanique du froid	Paris, FR		Ongoing	2024
Le Cabanon	Paris, FR - Rusé, BG	20	Interrupted	2016
Le Parlement Climatique	Paris, FR		Teaching	2020
Leboncoin	Versailles, FR		Teaching	2020
Les Conciliabules	Cannes, FR	77	Completed	2018
Logements Aragon	Villejuif, FR	3480	Competition	2024
Logements Chapelle International	Paris, FR	6500	Competition	2019
Logements Corbeville	Orsay, FR	8001	Ongoing	2025
Logements Dubois	Marcoussis, FR	2100	Competition	2022
Logements Edouard Vaillant	Pantin, FR	6700	Competition	2021
Logements Lestage	Gradignan, FR	10560	Competition	2023
Logements Kooperative Großstadt	Munich, DE	4100	Competition	2017
Logements avenue Foch	Houilles, FR	3660	Competition	2022
Logements Niemeyer	Fontenay sous bois, FR	5083	Competition	2024
Logements Picpus	Paris, FR	33900	Competition	2017
Logements Python Duvernois	Paris, FR	7760	Competition	2022
Logements Reuilly	Paris, FR	1040	Unbuilt	2017
Logements rue de Tolbiac	Paris, FR	3406	Ongoing	2019
Logements Saint-Vincent de Paul	Paris, FR	13900	Ongoing	2019
Logements Sainte Croix	Paris, FR	490	Completed	2019
Logements YLC	Versailles, FR	19000	Competition	2022
Louvre Lens, Galerie du Temps	Lens, FR	3200	Competition	2019
Magasins Dia	Paris, FR	1780	Completed	2012
Maison Al Atheeb	Al Atheeb, Medina, SA	700	Ongoing	2022
Maison Jequier	Clamart, FR	340	Completed	2012
Maison Kangouni	Mohéli, KM	230	Interrupted	2014
Maison Lenoir	Volgré, FR	145	Unbuilt	2013
Maison Maria Casarès	Alloue, FR	544	Interrupted	2018
Maison Nioumachoi	Mohéli, KM	240	Interrupted	2014
Maison Talca	Talca, CL	246	Ongoing	2024
Maisons Monde	Versailles, FR		Teaching	2017
MALI museum	Lima, PE	6000	Competition	2016
Médiathèque OLC	Onet-le-Château, FR	1150	Completed	2014
Musée du verre	Carmaux, FR	1815	Competition	2024
Logements Namataba	Namataba, UG	1400	Unbuilt	2013
NDB office	Paris, FR	125	Completed	2025
Observatoire Château‑Chinon	Château-Chinon, FR	448	Ongoing	2023
Bureaux DDS Verko	Dendermonde, BE	2500	Competition	2022
Bureaux CCC Aubervilliers	Aubervilliers, FR	75000	Competition	2019
Galleria P420	Bologna, IT	460	Completed	2015
Paris Internationale 2017	Paris, FR	3780	Completed	2017
Paysages en exil	Toulouse, FR	2000	Completed	2010
Place de la Bride	Martel, FR	360	Unbuilt	2009
Piazza San Marco			Text	2016
Project for a ruined façade	Girac, FR	119	Ongoing	2019
Radio France, un dégradé sonore	Paris, FR	1700	Interrupted	2017
Restaurant 1A	Paris, FR	195	Completed	2011
Logements Roof house	Chiba, JP	1479	Competition	2012
Rua Ferreira Chaves	Lisbon, PT	110	Completed	2019
Rue d'Athènes	Paris, FR	180	Completed	2021
Rue de Fleurus	Paris, FR	277	Ongoing	2019
Snow house	Santiago, CL	140	Competition	2009
Stand Maisontrois	Paris, FR	9	Completed	2007
Studio Dailymotion	Paris, FR	270	Competition	2013
The Cornell box	Hyères, FR	58	Completed	2017
Treehouse	Le Vignon-en-Quercy, FR	5	Completed	2022
Un voyage, pas une destination	Paris, FR	44	Completed	2019
Universidad Austral	Valdivia, CL	9600	Competition	2008
Villa Bloch, un second jour	Poitiers, FR	440	Completed	2019
Visible, invisible	Versailles, FR		Completed	2022
Wall house	Muret, FR	110	Unbuilt	2010
Water from the sun	Maribor, SI	14000	Competition	2010

Projects

Lauréat des Albums des Jeunes Architectes et Paysagistes 2016

About

There was this evening light, from a still mild September, below 2000k, more heat than light. There were pure skies with almost no cloudiness, where nothing truly seemed to separate us from the interstellar void, and sometimes chiseled clouds resting on invisible seas of cool air.
Rarely, the snow, blending on the horizon into the whiteness of altostratus, or it would literally reverse the landscape, and light seemed to emanate from the ground. There was the mist, always, low and gradual in the evening, slowly ascending the damp meadow, and of course, the morning fog, dazzling and thick, inhabitable.
There were smells: those of the river, the humus, the rain. And sounds, those of nature, carried by the wind, but especially the way the sounds we made changed according to the environment, muffled or reverberated, in short waves or deep vibrations.
These memories of Quercy where I grew up, mostly atmospheric, are the ones that likely shaped my perception of the environment. As for the rest, it's the simplicity of a predominantly rural environment, the elementary, basic solutions that surrounded us, that influenced my perspective. Later, I had to learn to align this empirical frame of reference with what is called architecture.

2015.10 Nicolas Dorval-Bory

Nicolas Dorval-Bory (1980) graduated from ENSA Paris Val de Seine in 2007.
After various collaborations in Santiago, Buenos Aires and Paris (2009-2013), the office Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes today operates on very diverse scales in France and abroad.
Nicolas Dorval-Bory has been teaching since 2011 at ENSA Normandie (2011-2014), at the Porto Academy summer school (2019), and since 2014 at ÉNSA Versailles. He is currently a doctoral student at Paris-Cergy University.
In 2016, he received the AJAP national prize from the Ministry of Culture.
In 2022, he co-curated BAP!2 Visible, invisible, the second Biennale of architecture and landscape in Ile-de-France.

Contact

Paris — 38 rue Henri Barbusse 75005 Paris, France
Occitanie — rue du barri de Brive 46600 Martel, France

Architect's board national number : S14681

+33 9 54 24 13 61
mail@nicolasdorvalbory.fr

For job enquiries :
job@nicolasdorvalbory.fr, with PDF portfolio 5MB max. Please no printed or online booklet.

Exhibitions

2022 BAP!2 — Visible, Invisible, co-curated by Nicolas Dorval-Bory and Guillaume Ramillien, second architecture and landscape biennale of Ile de France, Versailles, FR
2021 Légendes, 10 maisons particulières, co-curated by Nicolas Dorval-Bory and Sébastien Martinez-Barat, Maison de l'architecture Occitanie Pyrénées, Toulouse, FR
2020 Le parlement climatique, co-curated by Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Jeremy Lecomte and Emeric Lambert, ENSA-Versailles, Versailles, FR
2019 Hôtel métropole, pavilion by Nicolas Dorval-Bory and VORBOT, Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris, FR
2019 Haute agora, Unité d'Habitation de Val-de-Briey curated by Jean-Christophe Quinton & Bollinger+Grohmann, Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris, FR
2018 Les conciliabules, co-curated by Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Martinez-Barat Lafore and Julie Martinon, MIPIM2018, Cannes, FR
2017 AJAP 2016, curated by Karine Dana, Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, FR
2016 Nouvelles Richesses, french pavilion curated by OBRAS + Collectif AJAP14, 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture, Venice, IT

Teaching

2022 Tenure Maître de conférence, Architecture School of Versailles
Studios :
2022—... B.arch 1st year studio dual-track architecture/engineering
2017—... B.arch 2nd year studio W, Hz, cd, °C, lm, Pa — Polytechnique — Habiter (2017-2019) and Leboncoin (2020-2023)
2019—... M.arch studio Atacama architecture at the edge of physics (2019-2022) and Architecture of energies (2021-2024)
2014—2017 Studio teaching assistant, Built climates with Philippe Rahm, Architecture School of Versailles
2014 Studio teaching assistant, social housing, Architecture School of Normandy
2011—2014 Studio teaching assistant, Urbanisme thermodynamique with Philippe Rahm, Architecture School of Normandy
Workshops :
2022 Sobre lo expositivo e itinerante, Colegio de Arquitectos, Rosario, Argentina
2019 Porto Academy, FAUP, Portugal
2017—2018 Architecture et son with Gilles Paté, Architecture School of Versailles
2016—2017 L'architecture comme invention d'un langage with Philippe Rahm, Architecture School of Versailles
2016 Objets Immanents - Territoire de Vassivière with Cédric Libert, out-of-academia, CIAP Vassivière
2016 Gravir, invited by Pierre Vanni, Art and Design School of Nancy
2010 initiation to architecture, secondary school J. Mermoz, Savigny/Orge
Invited jurys :
2022 Building Interfaces (Cristian Stefanescu), Bergen School of Architecture, Bergen, NO
2022 Unité de Production (Sophie Dars), La Cambre, Bruxelles, BE
2021 The problem of existing (Leeland McPhail), Rhode Island School of Design, US
2021 Taller de Verano (Emilio Marin & A. Dal Mos), Universidad Católica, Santiago, CL
2020 Performative objects (A. Verschuere/Baukunst), EPFL, Lausanne, CH
2020 Housing Home and Content(s) (Colby Vexler), Melbourne School of Design, AU
2020 Wandhäuser (Marianne Müller), ABK Akademie der bildenden Künste, Stuttgart, DE
2020 The Forest (Luis Callejas), AHO, NO / Yale School of Design, US
2014—2016 École Spéciale d’Architecture, Architecture School of Paris Malaquais

Lectures

2025.04 A kind of physical dialectics, OSA, Mendrisio, CH
2025.04 Conversations sur l'architecture, Le Bicolore, maison du Danemark, Paris, FR
2025.04 In/appropriate climate, Ten Studio, ETH, Zurich, CH
2025.02 Quinze maisons et un épilogue, ENSA Nantes/Mauritius, Ile Maurice FR
2024.11 Observatoire Château-Chinon, RCE, Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris, FR
2024.10 Architecture astronomique, CAUE, Nevers, FR
2024.05 Visible, invisible, and everything in between, Arkitektforening, Oslo, Oslo, NO
2024.05 A question of matter and energy, AHO, Oslo, NO
2023.12 Une double nature, ENSA Saint-Etienne, FR
2023.11 Le fond d'un océan d'air, ARPAL, ENSA Montpellier, FR
2023.11 Chaque projet est une réhabilitation, Paris Historique, Paris, FR
2023.11 Some houses I think of, Singularch, STU Bratislava, SK
2023.11 Paroles d'architectes, Festival Résurgences, Pinsac, FR
2023.04. Energies, artefacts, ENSA-V, Versailles, FR
2023.02 Architecture in three steps, TU Kaiserslautern, DE
2022.11 Sistemas de comprensión de la realidad, Lerma, Buenos Aires, AR
2022.11 Contar o permitir : el arquitecto y la exposición, Alianza Francesa/Colegio de Arq., Rosario, AR
2022.09 Lessons from five heroes, Institut Suédois, Paris, FR
2022.05 Access to tools, La Cambre, Bruxelles, BE
2022.04 Materia, energía y otras rarezas, Universidad De Las Americas, Santiago, CL
2021.11 Matter, energy and other oddities, Cooper Union, New York, US
2021.10 About deserts, AHO, Oslo, NO
2021.07 Things that exist, exist, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, FR
2021.05 Physics, composition, reality, UT Sydney, AU
2020.12 Walls, thicknesses, ambiguities, ABK Akademie der bildenden Künste, Stuttgart, DE
2020.12 Juste après le réel, juste avant le réalisme, Maison de l'Architecture d'Ile de France, FR
2019.11 Négociations, ENSA Paris La Villette, FR
2019.07 Each project is five things, Porto Academy / FAUP, Porto, PT
2019.06 Atacama, architecture at the edge of physics, Star's up festival, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, FR
2019.02. Des conditions particulières, Maison de l'Architecture, Poitiers, FR
2018.11. Studio Prouvé, Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Paris, FR
2018.04. Dialéctica y atmósferas, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, CL
2018.01. Ideas about sustainability, World Urban Forum, Kuala Lumpur, MY
2017.10. Architecture et son, ENSA-V, Versailles, FR
2017.03. Spectre visible, MIPIM Cannes, FR
2017.03. Expérimentation et maîtrise d’œuvre, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, FR
2016.12. De l’absence et de ses formes, ENSAD Nancy, FR
2016.11. About atmospheres, Fakultät für Architektur, Munich, DE
2016.05. Sound of labor, Galerie Ygrec / Space Caviar, FR
2015.12 Vapeur, ENSA Versailles / La Maréchalerie, Versailles, FR
2013.05. Constellations, ENSA Val-de-Seine, Paris, FR
2013.02. Journée CROAIF, Maison de l’architecte Ile de France, Paris, FR

Team

Nicolas Dorval-Bory
Hugo Taillardat
Bruno Todeschini
Stefania Iraci Sareri
Chloé Gillespie
Alice Braastad

Since 2009 :

Olga Engell, Anaïs Pujo, Dorothea Schiesser, Adèle Chiaverini, Lilou Antonelli, Lisa Girard, Anne Silberg Thomsen, Erwin Renard, Chéryne Götz, Léa Guillotin, Aaron Amend, Louise Cartier, Ella Bacchetta, Louis Dumont, Victoire Sebaux, Victoire Bouillot, Vincent Prevost, Chloé Gillespie, Zoé Duvauchel, Khadija Rock, Giuditta Trani, Tristan Leduc, Kibum Park, Kelly Meng, Hugo Soucaze-Caussade, Yunxiang Guo, Chloé Prévot, My-Linh Ton, Filippo Munari, Emmanuelle Barbier, Hermine De Volder, Anna Liu, Juliette Soubrane, Margaux Guillot, Tom Floquet, Théa Brion, Marion Moutal, Hugo Taillardat, Mirjam Elsner, Mathieu Pontoizeau, Maelys Garreau, Marion Valli, Hélène Battini, Jeronimo Bailat, Marie Bastide, Clément Talbot, Clémentine Sarramon, Deniz Basman, José Rocha Gonçalves, Tiia Anttila, Daniele Pasin, Frederica Sedda, Erin Durno, Julie Arnaud, Paula Gonzalez Balcarce.
Emilie Faline, partner, 2014-2018
Raphaël Bétillon, partner 2010-2013

Credits

Design: Roch Deniau
Development: Paul Gacon
Typeface: Basel Grotesk by Chi-Long Trieu
Photography : Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Salem Mostefaoui, Philippe Billard

Il y avait cette lumière du soir, d’un mois de septembre encore doux, en-deçà de 2000k, plus de chaleur que de lumière. Il y avait les ciels purs à la nébulosité quasi-nulle, où rien ne semblait véritablement nous séparer du vide intersidéral, et parfois les nuages ciselés posés sur des mers invisibles d’air frais.
Rarement la neige, elle se fondait alors à l’horizon dans la blancheur des altostratus, ou bien elle inversait littéralement le paysage et la lumière semblait alors provenir du sol. Il y avait la brume, toujours, basse et progressive le soir, remontant lentement la prairie humide, et bien-sûr le brouillard chaque matin, éblouissant et épais, habitable.
Il y avait des odeurs : celles de la rivière, de l’humus, de la pluie. Et des sons, ceux de la nature, portés par le vent, mais surtout la manière dont ceux que l’on produisait changeaient selon l’environnement, assourdis ou réverbérés, en ondes courtes ou vibrations profondes.
Ces souvenirs du nord du Lot où j’ai grandi, atmosphériques pour la plupart, sont ceux qui ont vraisemblablement défini ma perception de l’environnement. Pour le reste, c’est la simplicité d’un milieu, alors majoritairement paysan, les solutions élémentaires, basiques qui nous entouraient, qui infléchirent mon regard. Plus tard, il fallut apprendre à faire correspondre ce référentiel empirique avec ce qu’on appelle l’architecture.

2015.10 Nicolas Dorval-Bory

Information

A house in the Sun

A short history of artificial light

Paris Internationale 2015

Acoustic composition

Maison Al-'Ula

Anabatic office

Appartement Batignoles

Appartement Light Line

Appartement Montparnasse

Appartement P420

Appartement rue Dieu

Appartement rue du Caire

Appartement Saint-Jacques

Appartement sliding wall

Appartement spectral

Appartement Temple

Appartement two boxes

Appartement Vaneau

Atacama, architecture at the edge of physics

Avenue du Chateau

Avenue Victoria

Base nautique Jonction

Basic office

Boutique Kitsuné Boulevard

Boutique Le Gramme

Boutique Sakina

Built climates

Chalet Jurvielle

Chambres en décalage

Château Malromé

Dans des matins sans âge et toujours recommencés

Detail, formulate, build

DJ Booth Badaboum

Ecole OLC

Ecole Verdeaux

Galerie Ciaccia Levi

Gravir

Kraken Mare

La mécanique du froid

Le Cabanon

Le Parlement Climatique

Leboncoin

Les Conciliabules

Logements Aragon

Logements Chapelle International

Logements Corbeville

Logements Dubois

Logements Edouard Vaillant

Logements Lestage

Logements Kooperative Großstadt

Logements avenue Foch

Logements Niemeyer

Logements Picpus

Logements Python Duvernois

Logements Reuilly

Logements rue de Tolbiac

Logements Saint-Vincent de Paul

Logements Sainte Croix

Logements YLC

Louvre Lens, Galerie du Temps

Magasins Dia

Maison Al Atheeb

Maison Jequier

Maison Kangouni

Maison Lenoir

Maison Maria Casarès

Maison Nioumachoi

Maison Talca

Maisons Monde

MALI museum

Médiathèque OLC

Musée du verre

Logements Namataba

NDB office

Observatoire Château-Chinon

Bureaux DDS Verko

Bureaux CCC Aubervilliers

Galleria P420

Paris Internationale 2017

Paysages en exil

Place de la Bride

Piazza San Marco

Project for a ruined façade

Radio France, un dégradé sonore

Restaurant 1A

Logements Roof house

Rua Ferreira Chaves

Rue d'Athènes

Rue de Fleurus

Snow house

Stand Maisontrois

Studio Dailymotion

The Cornell box

Treehouse

Un voyage, pas une destination

Universidad Austral

Villa Bloch, un second jour

Visible, invisible

Wall house

Water from the sun

#ajap

#office life

#lecture

#teaching

#built climates

#out there

#mars

#juno

#jupiter

#io

#plan

#scale model

#sound

#construction

#façade

#site

#publication

#workshop

#detail

#ensa-v

#stairs

#photo by salem mostefaoui

#pavilion by ensamble studio

#pavilion by lcla

#pavilion by mary duggan

#thermodynamics

#installation by aas

#installation by marechal serna

#section

#diagram

#caroline corbasson

#wabar meteorite

#happy new year

#isometric

#ventilation

#temperature

#light

#photo by francesco rioda

#bathroom

#elt

#cerro armazones

#vlt

#cerro paranal

#cerro tololo

#emilio marin

#cerro pachon

#lsst

#alma

#llano del chajnantor

#las campanas

#magellan telescopes

#photo by clem bacri & adrien normier / eso

#hydrology

#nicolas debest

#marie oudon

#baptiste touzé

#ines langlois

#justine tripier

#electromagnetic waves

#valentin berges

#tristan leduc

#clara chapus

#thermics

#eleonore bouchu

#ines sheehan

#aude windeck

#marion bisiaux

#paraseismic

#image by arte factory

#chlorophyll

#lothaire hucki

#image by jeudi.wang

#ethan de clerc

#margot brien

#marie cossé

#juliette soubrane

#eva simon thomas

#pierre nicolas voisin

#photo by philippe billard

#image by bureau 504

#luke howard

#albumseize

#library

#art

#humidity

#mipim

#thelonious goupil

#venice biennale

#news

#objects of fascination

#artefactorylab

#titan

#kraken mare

#photo by maxime delvaux

#demolition

#radio france

#image by aiva

#heat

#wood

#architecture & sound

#kuala lumpur

#world urban forum

#jeronimo bailat

#triton

#quentin gaudry

#maya cunat

#jwst