Winner of the 2018 AJAP Prize (Prix Albums des Jeunes Architectes et Paysagistes), TITAN is a Nantes-based architecture agency created in 2011 by Mathieu Barré, François Guinaudeau and Romain Pradeau, all three of whom graduated from Nantes’ acclaimed architecture school.
With recent award-winning designs, TITAN is a rising figure in the architecture world. Its approach stands apart through its commitment to simplicity, functionality and the desire to create a poetic response to a given environment, thus making it an integral part of any space.
For Place Graslin, Titan was inspired by the relationship between form and balance established by architect Mathurin Crucy, who designed both the square and the theatre in the late 18th century. Their response? An invitation for one and all to strap on a pair of roller skates! In the centre of the square, they’ve set up a monumental, circular track dedicated to the age-old practice of roller skating. The rink has been adapted to the irregularities of the ground and plays with its natural slope, giving the square a renewed sense of centrality and opening it up for hours of fancy-free skating.
Amblers and athletes alike will meet on the track inside the rink, which offers an opportunity to honour a lively and effervescent sport that has made a comeback in recent years: roller derby!
Spectators can sit on the steps of the theatre – conveniently turned into bleachers – and watch an open-air match.
TITAN is a Nantes-based agency created in 2011 and winner of the 2018 Europe 40 Under 40 award.
In March 2022, Versus received the Honourable Mention International Prize from the Barbara Cappochin International Architecture Prize, a prestigious recognition in the field of architecture.
Versus, which will be dismantled at the end of the summer event in September 2021, will be reinstalled permanently on the western tip of the Ile de Nantes by 2024.