Hong Kong Design Institute by CAAU

Coldefy is an architecture studio founded by Thomas Coldefy and Isabel Van Haute in 2006, with offices in Lille, Paris, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The studio has an international team with completed and ongoing projects, public and private at all scales, around the world.

Thomas and Isabel met at SCAU in Paris after working for, among others, Kohn Pedersen Fox and Richard Meier and Partners on large-scale complex projects. When designing, they pay special attention to the place, the urban culture related to density and diversity, as well as a conceptualization process where the various factors of the project come together continuously.

After founding the studio, they won the competition for the Hong Kong Institute of Design in 2006 against 162 teams. The project completed since 2009 has been the subject of numerous international publications, was nominated for the AFEX Grand Prize in 2012 and exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

In France, Coldefy continues to develop a series of projects, especially in the heart of the Lille metropolitan area, where they have already completed multiple operations: multi-family housing and offices at the Porte de Valenciennes Arboretum in Euralille, the Lucie Aubrac Secondary School. The school in Tourcoing, the first low-energy school in the region, or Rigot Stalars, a historic mixed-use rehabilitation and extension, creating a new neighborhood in Dunkirk.

In 2016, the office carried out two major construction projects in the Lille metropolitan area: the Aquatic Center in Douai and the Lycée Hôtelier de Lille. Having completed the first phase of the new OVH campus, the team worked on the project for a complex bringing together leisure, cultural and retail spaces in Orgeval, as well as the transformation of an eclectic historic neighborhood in Fuzhou, China. In addition, there are multiple commissions and competitions, including a graphic arts school in Montpellier, the planning of a new development area in the Paris region, the second phase of Rigot Stalars, a restaurant and high-end residential units in the historic Vieux Lille, the modernization of a Villa in Shanghai, etc.

Awards