In 2006, Coldefy & Associates Architects Urban Planners (CAAU) won the International Architectural Design Competition for the Hong Kong Design Institute; the design subsequently won the Prix Tour Eiffel - 2007.
     Thomas Coldefy, Principal of CAAU, was awarded the Europe 40 Under 40 prize by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in 2010.
     This annual award recognizes the most promising and emerging European design talent who will impact on future living and working environments, cities, and rural areas in Europe and around the world.
     Engaging in the industry for nearly 10 years, Thomas has worked for several renowned architecture and urban planning agencies, including SCAU with Tadao Ando, Franck Hammoutene, SOM and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Thomas joined CAAU in 2006.
     Today, Thomas Coldefy and Isabel Van Haute are the young duo of (CAAU), leading the diverse international team based in Paris, Lille, and Hong Kong.
     The firm is characterized by its dynamism and creativity, animated by an international tropism that drives them to participate regularly in professional events around the world as well as in large international competitions. Their originality and resourcefulness have brought them success in a number of entries, including the Hong Kong Design Institute which they won in 2006 against 162 teams.
     The firm's international activity extends beyond Asia, having won the international conference center in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso in 2009, the Public Service Hall in Kobuleti, Georgia in 2012, and was awarded the silver prize for the IDA awards 2012 in Los Angeles.
     In the summer of 2013, CAAU received a distinction from the French minister of culture among the top ten French architects working abroad and was subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. 



CAAU distinguishes itself with an open and innovative spirit acquired in high-quality international offices, particularly in the United States. CAAU's project method employs extreme consideration to the site, an urban culture concerned with the appropriate density and diversity, as well as a conceptualization process where the various project factors are continually brought together to the point of overlap.
     The firm's areas of operation cover a wide spectrum of projects: office buildings, public amenities (education, culture, sports, law and health), private developments (housing, service complexes, industrial buildings, and shopping centres), etc.
     Urban and environmental designs are the firm's outstanding fields. This preference is reflected in extreme attention to the quality of public space, a sensitive pursuit of perfection in the match between context, landscape  and construction, attention to the program, economical use of resources, rejection of anecdote, and overall an ability to create simple, user-friendly and human urban events. This quest for the "right tone" combined with ecological responsibility is founded in deep convictions that the protagonists, using their talent for persuasion, work hard put across - always with a focus on dialogue - to their clients, to their own teams and to the experts who support them in their drive to provide the best. In July 2013, Thomas and the CAAU team visited Guangzhou and subsequently invited to work on several projects including a super highrise and several institutional projects in the region. 
     For more information, visit www.caau.fr

    
"Hong Kong and Guangzhou are amazing cities which have undergone rapid development in the past decades. It is an excellent opportunity for us to come here at this critical moment, because the time is ripe for us to contribute our experience and skill in creating a brand new type of buildings which are responsive to the local environment." - Thomas Coldefy, Principal, CAAU.
   


Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, China