Nicolas Ziesel: Sous le pin
KOZ architectes, France
“KOZ was founded in 1999 by Christophe Ouhayoun and Nicolas Ziesel after graduating from the ENSA Paris-Belleville. The office is located in Paris, focuses on wood building and has projects in France, the Caribbean and Africa. Current projects range from big with part of the athletes village for the 2024 Paris games, to small with an experimental bioiclimatic house with local materials on the Martinique island.
The 25 people strong team adopted a 4 day work week a few years ago and still finds time for our two other ventures:
KOZTO is a manufacturing unit designing and making furniture or interior architecture by reusing materials. It is currently involved on the “Communale” food court outside of Paris and pieces for the Chaillot National Theatre of Dance. KOZPLAY is dedicated to educative and participative events. This summer we did a design & build workshop with an elementary school in Paris and a student workshop in Bordeaux with participants from France, Japan and Ukrain. Nicolas is associate teacher at the Architecture & Landscape school in Lille (ENSAPL), and organizes a « learning by doing » studio at the Abidjan School of Architecture (EAA). He is VP of the non-profit AFEX, dedicated to helping French architects working abroad. He is associate member of Yes We Camp, an non-profit running transitory urbanism sites with a high social impact. He coordinates a Community Supported Agriculture group, always cooks too spicy and dances to undanceable music.”