Éric Lapierre

Born in 1966 in Tarbes, Éric Lapierre is an architect, lecturer and researcher, theorist, writer and exhibition curator. He has been teaching at ENSA Paris-Est since 1999, specialising in design; he delivers lectures and leads a research seminar. Since 2016, he has been head of the Architecture & Experience Master’s programme.

In 2020, Éric Lapierre was appointed associate professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), following several years as a visiting professor. He has previously taught at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio (2012–2015), at UQAM (2013), at the University of Montreal (UdM) (2014) and at Sint Lukas in Ghent (2015).

His professional work is recognised both nationally and internationally for the quality of his built tectonic projects and for the theoretical dimension of his output. In 1998, he founded the practice Éric Lapierre Experience, which enables him not only to practise as an architect but also to explore the relationship between architecture and music and to devote himself to writing. In 2020, his practice, now known simply as Experience, was named by Domus magazine as one of the 50 most “creative, interesting and promising in the world”.

Éric Lapierre also serves as a consultant architect for Bordeaux Métropole and is a member of the Vieux Paris commission.

His most iconic buildings include the Le Point du Jour art centre in Cherbourg, the Chris Marker student residence and bus hub in Paris, and the logistics hub for Toulouse Logistique Urbaine.

Musical performances are also organised on his building sites as part of regular collaborations with artists such as Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Magik Markers, Six Organs of Admittance, Jean-François Pauvros, Jean-Marc Montera, Theo Hakola…

Éric Lapierre regularly publishes articles and books on the current state of architecture. These include Architecture du Réel in 2003; Paris, Guide d’architecture 1900–2008 in 2008 (also available as an app) and Le Point du Jour – Une architecture en béton in 2008. One of his most recent works, Forty Eight Pages: Éric Lapierre, produced as part of the Quarantotto pagine di architettura insegnata collection created by the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, explores the teaching of architecture and illustrates how contemporary architectural culture is analysed and conveyed through educational work.

In 2019, Éric Lapierre, together with his team of lecturers from the Architecture & Experience Master’s programme, was appointed chief curator of the fifth edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (October–December 2019), which he titled Poetics of Reason, which aims to define the distinctive nature of architectural rationality. The event, of which the Paris-Est School of Architecture, City and Territories was a partner, was very well received by the public (80,000 visitors) and the relevance of its exhibitions was praised by critics.