Isabelle Sarkis-Alibert's Portfolio

architect (diplomed by government)

In the following pages I will expose my ideas, my projects,...

Born in Paris in 1965, I've studied four years (1979 - 83) at the Denis Bergmann's
drawing studio, seven years at the  Architectural school of Paris La Seine which is
situated in the buildings of the famous Beaux-Arts school.
I got my architect's diploma in 1993.
While I was studying, I had the opportunity to work for several architects agencies
from 1987 to 1990. Then, I settled as a independant.


 The Citée Radieuse from Le Corbusier - Marseilles

© Sami Sarkis

                Undoubtfully I have been influenced by the 'fonctionnalists', in the sense of this
so french Cartesian spirit that likes to put on anything a reason to live! And that is
a way to give a sense to an architectural gesture.

But when I discovered the japaneese architecture, both traditionnal and contemporary,
it has opened my mind to another way of conceiving the space.









" Definition is limitation, 
the beauty of a picture or a flower 
lay down its unconscious unfolding"
(anonymous japaneese poem)



The relation between the builted and its natural environement, the way of errasing
the volumes: this is the japaneese architectural space; an assemblage of abstractives
frontales surfaces.

We receive the world through the fullness of our experiences and the emptyness of our
sensations. The visible elements are just signs that reveal the empty spaces, intervals
between two full spaces.
There is a word in japaneese that deals with this interval, its 'MA'. It can be translated as:

- space
- spacing
- interval
- a bed-room
- a stop
- a rest
- the time
- the movement
- an opening...

MA is an interval between two worlds.

On every step, the japaneese garden stones oblige you to decompose the movement.
MA, the interval between two stones, gives birth to the breathing rythm.   



                        So, I found a balance between rationalism and invisible world.
In France, Architecture of the eighties have brought too many 'objects-buildings'
with no relation to their context.
The city became a top priority subject and opened new fields of thoughts.
  
Living in Paris - France, I had under my eyes a very good example: city of many desires, of many hates, of many tentations. How my city have changed along 20 years! How many districts yesterday popular have turned to middle-class people or became just offices areas, putting outside the city its own population.(1) The lasts places to resit finally felt under the bulldozers and became 'ZAC' (Concerted Urbanistic Arrangements Zones).
Paris- under the aerial metro

I had no other choice than leaving the city where I was born, and I decided to settle-down near the 'Big Blue' sea, in Marseilles, city of one of my ancestors.

	Living in Paris - France, I had under my eyes a very good example: city of many desires, of many hates, of many tentations. How my city have changed along 20 years! How many districts yesterday popular have turned to middle-class people or became just offices areas, putting outside the city its own population.(1) The lasts places to resit finally felt under the bulldozers and became 'ZAC' (Concerted Urbanistic Arrangements Zones).		Paris- under the aerial metro

Marseilles

(1) see my project: Paris-Village: La Goutte d'Or

You can have a look on two projects representing my approach:

- Paris-Village: la Goutte d'Or, restructuration of a parisian district
- The J4 shed,reconversion of industrial premises in Marseilles

or my other works: drawings & paintings

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