RHB architectes is an architecture and urban planning practice based in Strasbourg, founded in 2009 by Julien Rouby and Julie Hemmerlé (at that time called Rouby Hemmerlé Architects) and currently jointly managed by Julien Rouby, Julie Hemmerlé, and Nicolas Brigand. After eight years of experience, enriched by collaborative projects, Nicolas Brigand, who joined the firm in 2014, became a partner. In addition to the three managing partners, the firm currently has a staff of approximately fifteen people.
The practice's work was recently recognized with the 2020 Eiffel Trophy for the Multifunctional Pavilion project in Soultz-sous-Forêts. In 2018, it won the Europe 40 Under 40 award, which recognizes the work of emerging European architecture firms. These awards complement the distinctions received by Julie Hemmerlé and Julien Rouby in 2016 for their project to enhance the archaeological remains of Niederbronn-les-Bains (CAUE Awards, urban and landscape design category) and in 2015 for the Strasbourg tourist office and a passive house in Saint-Clair (National Timber Construction Award). Reflecting a shared initial step, their respective graduation projects were recognized by the French Academy of Architecture: the Tony Garnier Prize in 2003 for Julien Rouby, the MAF (Meilleur Apprenti de France) and Meyer-Levi awards in 2004 for Julie Hemmerlé, and the MAF in 2015 for Nicolas Brigand.
Working on a wide range of projects, both public and private—with a portfolio encompassing public facilities, residential buildings, and public spaces—RHB Architects promotes a constructive approach focused on raising awareness of the building process and fostering collaboration.
Since the areas they work in are never neutral or pristine, the firm advocates for considering the pre-existing characteristics and unique features of each site. In fact, every intervention must take into account a context defined by its collective imagination, its history, its inhabitants, and their future concerns. Every architectural intervention impacts both the landscape and lifestyles. Therefore, a restrained and controlled architectural language is favored, emphasizing uses as a source of expression, as well as structural coherence.
RHB, an acronym for consortium, promotes exchange as the driving force behind its operations. Dialogue and communication are values that unite our partnership and, at the same time, enrich it. Our shared commitments as educators at INSA Strasbourg reflect this desire for transmission and sharing. We support a collective process of reflection and design and reject the practice of a solitary and hierarchical discipline, as architecture is a vehicle for broader considerations and knowledge.
