HEMAA Architectes is an architecture and urban planning studio founded in 2018 by Charles Hesters and Pierre Martin-Saint-Etienne. They undertake projects of all scales, encompassing public facilities, collective and individual housing, and cultural spaces, with an open and avant-garde approach.
Charles Hesters is an architect (HMONP) who graduated in 2012 from Paris Val de Seine and holds a Master's degree in Urban Planning from the University of Athens. He has worked at studios such as Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés, Gaëtan Le Penhuel, and Philippe Gazeau, and previously at Hesters-Oyon Architectes. After co-founding HEMAA in 2018 and participating in the Échelle Un incubator at EAV&T Paris-Est, he has been teaching at EAV&T Paris-Est and École des Ponts ParisTech since 2020, in the "matières à penser" department at the Master's level.
Pierre Martin-Saint-Etienne is an HMONP architect trained in Paris Val de Seine and holds a Master's degree in Urban Planning from UFRJ in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to specialized training in straw bale and earth construction. His professional experience includes stints at Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés, Philippe Gazeau, and Brunet Saunier, before co-founding HEMAA in 2018 and also participating in the Échelle Un incubator. Between 2018 and 2020, he was a teaching assistant at ENSA Paris-Malaquais within Studio PASS, teaching both Master 1 and the PFE program, and since 2020 he has been involved in the HMONP training program at ENSA Paris-La Villette.
Together, Hesters and Martin-Saint-Etienne develop a body of work that combines research, teaching, and built projects, guided by a shared conviction: to design architecture deeply conscious of its time and place, capable of engaging with nature and offering new, more respectful, understated, and sensitive ways of living.
Each project thus becomes an opportunity to question the scale and impact of buildings, adjust the dimensions of volumes, fragment masses, and dignify voids. The school complex they built in Normandy, for example, allowed them to work with local wood and slate, revisiting traditional forms. In Sartrouville, the school is built of solid load-bearing stone; in Evry, the Pôle Enfance is configured as a small village of pavilions constructed of rammed earth and wood in the heart of a park; and the house in Garches incorporates walls of reclaimed meulière stone from the demolition of the existing building. These investigations into site integration, the use of bio-sustained or reused materials, and the mobilization of local resources form the basis of their environmental approach. They eliminate all superfluous materials to return to an architecture composed of its essential elements and, through a passive design approach, strive for each project to achieve energy and carbon neutrality throughout its entire life cycle. They believe that nature and architecture are not opposites, but rather must find a suitable balance in each intervention so that, after their work, places and landscapes regain a new harmony.
HEMAA's trajectory has been accompanied by several exhibitions at leading institutions. In 2025, they participated in the Forum Bois International at the Grand Palais in Paris; in 2022, they presented their work at the Manifeste exhibition at La Plateforme Rennes of ENSA de Bretagne; and in 2019, they were finalists for the IP Factory project at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal as part of the Paris Rive Gauche exhibition. And in 2014 they exhibited at Futurs Immédiats, also at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, with the Archipel de Seine project. Their work has also received outstanding recognition: in 2025 they won the Équerre d’Argent Première Œuvre for the Évry-Courcouronnes children's and sports center; in 2024 they were nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture —Mies van der Rohe Award— for the Heudebouville school complex; and in 2023 they were selected as Europe 40 Under 40 by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
