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152<br />
ART DE VIVRE<br />
Olivier Vallat<br />
An impassioned architect<br />
Since 1991, the<br />
architect’s study<br />
OVA has built itself<br />
a solid reputation<br />
through the impetus<br />
given by its<br />
creator, Olivier<br />
Vallat. After graduating<br />
from the<br />
University of<br />
Geneva, he started<br />
working in a prestigious New York office but<br />
then moved back to his native land,<br />
Switzerland, to set up his own office.<br />
Olivier Vallat chose to become an architect for<br />
the simple pleasure of being able to follow a<br />
project from start to finish, until the magic<br />
moment when it materializes into something<br />
concrete. The creative process goes through<br />
several phases where each one demands<br />
diverse skills: most importantly to listen to the<br />
client, but also to be inventive, innovative and<br />
to have good management skills since the<br />
office has around 15 employees. OVA carries<br />
out individual projects as well as shopping<br />
centers or public buildings. The variety of their<br />
projects enriches the artistic experience of each<br />
architect.<br />
This diversity resembles Olivier Vallat who is<br />
passionate about his job, but also about<br />
contemporary art and music from the sixties.<br />
He sees himself as a man of many skills since<br />
he plays the guitar, piano and saxophone. He<br />
is a free rider that enjoys fly-fishing and a biker<br />
who is a vintage Ferrari enthusiast. Olivier<br />
Vallat’s versatile world is centered around the<br />
pleasure of discovering things created in ones<br />
imagination and that then are transformed into<br />
something concrete that can finally be touched,<br />
as is the case with automobile and watch<br />
making technology. As a zealous lover of cars<br />
and watches he does not hesitate to try and<br />
combine the two and particularly appreciates<br />
the research done by Audemars-Piguet and<br />
Richard Millie. To complete this portrait, a<br />
detour via the minuscule and idyllic Gilly<br />
Islands in Indonesia where the Desa Dunia<br />
Beda hotel, that Olivier built and that opened<br />
in 2003, is to be found. A man who is driven<br />
by his love of diversity, passion and pleasure.<br />
Olivier Vallat Architectes<br />
rue des Vieux-Grenadiers 8<br />
1205 Genève<br />
www.ovarchitectes.com<br />
Natacha Borri
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