In the way of the Proust Questionnaire, AA asks today’s architects about their profession, their projects, their vision of the future. Today, we meet Yves Lion, founding architects of Ateliers Lion Associés in Paris. The office works on big cultural and educational projects such as the construction of the Institut des Cultures d’Islam in Paris, as well as on the Euroméditerranée area in Marseille or the Masséna Bruneseau in Paris Rive Gauche. The firm also has an office in Seoul, and is leading several projects abroad, in Seoul, Tunis, Moscou. Yves Lion was finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 1992 and 1996, and was Curator of the French Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. He is also a professor at the architecture school of Marne-la-Vallée.

Being an architect is …
Very good, very free.

My ideal commission
An individual house.

My job in 20 years
Like Palladio.

The advice I would give a young architect
To love.

What I wish to pass on to our collaborators
My office.

The rising architect we should follow
Bruno Taut.

The project I’d like to have done myself
The Louvre-Lens.

Another career I’d have liked to pursue
Pianist.

A book, an object, a piece of art I particularly like
The place where I live.

A place that inspires me
The Strait of Gibraltar.