Fourth in a line of architects, Marc Sirvin is raised by a family of building designers and entrepreneurs. Inherited from the maternal side of Italian origin, a taste for the design, crafts, and learning a second language during the long Italian summers, the buildings and the dynamism of his hometown of Puteaux and La Defense District forge his cosmopolitan character. Formed in three architecture schools in Paris: Val of Seine, Belleville and Malaquais, he completed his education by carrying out a long training course at an interior design agency in Mexico. The diploma obtained, Marc Sirvin is trilingual and has developed a penchant for small-scale architecture.

One experience in China

Whereas he begins at Nicolas Michelin in Paris, he decided to try his chance on the international scene : “At the time, we left to have exceptional track records in our CV, China was fashionable. Many ambitious French architects wanted to mount the antennas of their Parisian agencies“. His entry in the trade reveals interlacing between private life, professional life, and demonstrates the circumstances often hazardous and opportunists that build a career. Thanks to ArchiBat HR, Marc Sirvin finds a job as a project manager in Shanghai for the Eté Lee Chinese agency. At the beginning the only french in a team of twenty people, he finds his rhythm, he is appreciated for his skills of. “machine of ideas” and he is quickly in charge of the architectural concepts in phases of contest. Fifteen month later and after a few drafts projects drawn, the Agency Valode & Pistre hired him as a chief draughtsman in Shanghai and then in Beijing. Marc Sirvin met his future wife Clemency Éliard, architect for the Agency Steven Holl in Beijing. At the end of two years and a half, the principle of the construction design specific to the Chinese System brakes down the learning of the architect. Still young, Marc Sirvin feels the importance of learning on the building site. In addition, he struggles to integrate in the country: colossal cultural shifts, polluted air, extremely fast pace of work… The couple returns to Paris in 2007, Marc Sirvin works several months with Renzo Piano. According to Marc Sirvin his hiring has been related to his skills developed on the draft projects. The following year, his move to Manual Gautrand will mean the end of the paid employment

In 2012 the couple of architects founded their own structure “ Agence SML “: www.agence-sml.com. The distribution of tasks corresponds to the interests and to the experiences of the architects: Clémence Eliard is in charge of projects and management, Marc Sirvin deals with interior architecture and details. With two children and one agency in Paris, their life becomes suddenly local. But Marc Sirvin still travels regularly in Venice which inspires him, where his brother and his mother live, in order to follow and develop the development projects for individuals.

Portrait carried out by Laura Rosenbaum, DEHMONP architect, 3rd year of thesis of sociology under the direction of Guy Tapie, PAVE laboratory, ensapBx, partner at the Center Emile Durkheim, University of Bordeaux