KANSAS
france • usa
a french-american studio for makers
Sierra is a French-American building and design studio based in Paris, France.
We design unique spaces for makers and creative entrepreneurs. From breweries to bakeries, jewelry ateliers to cycle repair shops.
Carrie Wilbert and Eléonore Levieux founded Sierra in 2022 after ten years of experience in renowned international architecture and urban design firms. Today, they lead a diverse team of builders and technical experts to bring a globally aware and locally sensitive perspective.
We understand that our environment impacts how we live today and the next generation. We work with clients and collaborators that share this sensitive & hopeful spirit to make successful built projects.
tropical islands to the great plains
While Eléonore was learning to swim in the lagoons of the tropical Reunion island (FR), Carrie was learning to tend to tomatoes amongst the backdrop of the immense agricultural plains of Kansas (USA).
From two geographically opposing environments and culturally contrasting lifestyles the two trained architects met in 2012, as graduate students in Urban Design at ENSA Paris-Belleville, where they started working together out of a mutual interest to integrate imminent climatic changes in their project methodology.
Since then, for the past ten years, Eleonore and Carrie have refined their craft: practicing architecture, urban design and landscape design in large international firms in France, Côte d’Ivoire, and the United States. Their awareness moved beyond issues of energy use and efficiency, to begin holistically designing for social change as well.
Their empathy for cultural differences and international insight inspire a sensibility for diversity and the human experience in every project. It even earned them the ‘Emerging New York Architects’ Award in 2014 for the design of a socially and culturally inclusive neighborhood park in Queens. Today, they want to use their architectural and urban design skills and understanding of global issues to shape projects in a new way.
From the difference and the similarities of our two stories, Sierra was born in 2022. Sierra represents this meeting of our two experiences. Named for the Sierra Leone Rise found at the geographical midpoint in between the plains of Kansas and the beaches of Reunion Island. It represents our profound respect for nature and culture, and the word embodies the harmony we search with every new project we actively approach.