Fleury Atallah Architectes' contemporary Tunisian minimalism is exemplified in Maison Voutes

Tunisia's Fleury Atallah Architectes is a young practice that makes it into the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios.

Who: Fleury Atallah Architects

Fleury Atallah Architectes is one of the exciting emerging architecture practices to be included in the annual Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024. Founded in 2011 by Catherine Fleury and Chacha Atallah, it has offices in Toulon, France and Carthage, Tunisia. The studio focuses mainly on residential projects for private clients who are after a sensitive, sober and context-specific approach as well as inventive and beautiful solutions to architectural and interior challenges; but it has also designed art galleries and wine production facilities.

Fleury and Atallah share an affinity for projects that embrace Mediterranean culture and heritage and dialogue with its specific geography, context, landscape and climate. 'What motivates us is the construction of living spaces as a source of joy and happiness,' they say. 'A home must be useful, functional and simple, but most of all it must inspire emotions and feelings.' When they start a project they begin by thinking about proportions, lines, rhythms and patterns, and the way spaces frame the landscape and filter light. Internally, they favour natural and simple materials such as stone, terracotta, timber and raw concrete.

What: Villa Voûtes

Villa Voûtes (Vaulted Villa), completed in 2020 and located on the picturesque Marsa Corniche in northeastern Tunis, is an excellent example of Fleury Atallah’s architectural yet human-focused approach. The home centres on two brick-vaulted spaces, made entirely by hand and without formwork by a master craftsman, around which the rest of the programme is designed. Skilled artisans are a common sight on construction sites in Tunisia, the pair explain, and offer rich expertise and skills. To create the villa’s striking interiors, Fleury and Atallah also worked with local carpenters, stone masons and lime plasterers.

Another representative project by Fleury Atallah Architectes is the Villa Squelette (Skeleton Villa), which takes its name from the fact that when the duo first saw it, it was an abandoned skeleton of a raw concrete building sitting amid lush vegetation. Located in Gammarth, a steep residential suburb in the north of Tunis by the sea, the project is about ‘creating a relationship between the concrete structure and the 20m-high pine forest that runs along its entire south-eastern façade’, say the architects.

Externally, they reduced the building’s footprint to create more outdoor space and two generous terraces. Inside, they created a 5m-high ‘living area’ that includes the kitchen, living room, dining and a cosy mezzanine library. The façade is composed of reinforced concrete panels that are cut out in different shapes and sizes to create glazing and geometries that blur the hierarchy of the different levels inside and embed the structure in this very particular landscape.

Why: Architects Directory 2024

Conceived in 2000 as an international index of emerging architectural talent, the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe. While always championing the best and most promising young studios, over the years, the project has showcased inspiring work with an emphasis on the residential realm. Now including more than 500 alumni, the Architects’ Directory is back for its 24th edition. Join us as we launch this year’s survey – 20 young studios from Australia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, the UK, the USA, with plenty of promise, ideas and exciting architecture.

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