Clara Chapus

Clara Chapus is a French architect, urbanist and artist, working between Paris and Mexico City.

In the last four years, she has worked on several architectural projects in Mexico with Naso and Frida Escobedo, including the set design of the Cartier exhibition at the Jumex museum and the renovation of the Lago Algo gallery. She then co-founded Collectivo Talacha (meaning tinkering, working with the existing), a group of architects working on projects of transformation, such as a competition to rethink the Evangelion tunnels in Milan.

While developing her architectural practice, she founded studio a.c.e in 2020, dedicated to the production of plaster and concrete sculptures inspired by architecture and her Mexican origins. These sculptures attempt to give concrete, tangible form to visions of dreams and journeys, through raw materials, and serve a fascination with certain architectural elements.

These objects are strongly inspired by the work of architects such as Luis Barragán, Ricardo Bofill and Aldo Rossi. Part of these pieces were displayed in Mexico City at an exhibition organised by the Mujeres Creadoras collective.

studio a.c.e is currently launching a new phase of work, exploring and experimenting with new materials, new scales and new techniques, in order to produce sculptures about a range of topics including the ruin, the notion of monument, and the process of transformation of pre-existing spaces, while preserving the part of imaginary that characterises her work.