Facing contemporaneity

Stéphanie Bru is a French architect and co-founder of the Paris / Zurich based architecture studio BRUTHER, together with Alexandre Theriot. They belong to the generation of architects who launched their careers at the beginning of the recession, a condition likely reflected in the way they define architecture: like a Swiss Army knife, a tool to be used in the most disparate circumstances, an aid that reconciles all fields of knowledge. Their recent projects suggest a delicate balance between strategy and form, rigour and freedom, specific and generic, immediacy and evolvability. Their work was the object of a monograph entitled “Introduction” in 2014, and of many other international publications (2G / 2017, El Croquis / 2019, A+U / 2023). Distinguished by several awards, they have received the Équerre d'Argent prize three times (2016, 2018 and 2020), the Dejean prize in 2018 from the French Academy of Architecture and in 2020 the Swiss Architectural Award. In 2018, Bruther was nominated for the prestigious Schelling Architecture Prize of the Karlsruhe Schelling Architecture Foundation.

Stéphanie Bru was also a lecturer at various architecture schools worldwide, as Associate Professor of Architecture & Design. In 2022, she taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Between 2021 and 2025 she was full Professor at Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin and also taught at the USI Academy of Architecture Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Her teaching philosophy is rooted in understanding contemporaneity—its contradictions, instabilities, and accelerating excesses. In an era of growing precariousness masked by illusory comfort, she challenges students to critically engage with the political, economic, and ecological forces shaping architecture today. Her approach embraces contradiction, particularly the tension between economy and excess, urging students to act as “sponges” absorbing and interpreting these dynamics. By positioning themselves within conceptual polarities, they learn to navigate and respond meaningfully to the complexities of the present.

Selection of publications

2022 Specimen, BRUTHER, ETH, Paris
2022 Shelf, BRUTHER, Paris, Walther König
2022 Monograph “A+U” N°619
2020 DIXIT – Hyperconfort, Edition Cosa Mentale
2018 Monographie Bruther (2012-2018) “Bruther’s manchinism”, El croquis N°197
2017 2G n°76 (Monographie BRUTHER), Koenig Books
2017 Saint-Blaise, BRUTHER, Paris
2015 PLOT n°27, BRUTHER (pp.35-71), Plot
2014 Introduction, BRUTHER, Paris

Project selection

2013-15 Cultural and Sports Centre Saint-Blaise, Paris (FR)
2013-15 New Generation Research Centre, Caen (FR)
2009-17 25 Housing Units, Paris (FR)
2013-17 Residence for Researchers, Paris (FR)
2015-18 Renovation of a high-rise building, Paris (FR)
2016-19 Student Residence and Reversible Car Park, Palaiseau (FR)
2017-25 Frame Media House, Brussels (BE)
2023-25 Huaqiao Substation, Nanjing (CN)
2022-26 University Building and central square, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires (AR)
2018-26 Relocation, Renovation and Extension of the National Centre for Plastic Arts, Pantin (FR)
2022-26 Biosourced, low-carbon social housing building, Paris (FR)
2021-27 Residential development, Zug (CH)
2022-28 Nauentor complex, Basel (CH)

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