Philosophy
KAPT Studio operates between craft, climate and narrative, and sees architecture as a device for transformation, where each project is conceived as a discreet manifesto.
Thanks to their dual cultural backgrounds, Anas Koubaiti and Théo Pagnon take a pragmatic yet critical stance, concerned with inhabited ecology, sensible reuse and territorial coherence. Their approach is embodied in projects of all scales, ranging from design for use, to the transformation of existing buildings, climatic architecture and bespoke furniture.
Method
Architects, engineers and urban planners, Anas Koubaiti and Théo Pagnon cultivate a holistic approach to their practice. Their dual culture, both technical and artistic, encourages them to formulate bold and poetic proposals, while remaining sober and rooted in their context, in harmony with the times: in Rabat, the family home turns the atrium into a bioclimatic, social and symbolic reactor. In Santa Teresa, their jungle ecolodge blends into the canopy without any felling. In Aulas, a silkworm farm in the Cévennes is transformed into a house-workshop with a light elevation, made from hemp-lime and local wood. Each project bears witness to a fine dialogue with local practices, the soil and local resources.
KAPT is also an on-board research studio: teaching, scenography, installations and competitions are all part of their practice, like so many areas of experimentation.
Anas Koubaiti
Anas Koubaiti is an architect-engineer, graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette and the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, and trained as an urbanist at Sciences Po Paris.
His professional path has taken him from Milan to Geneva, via Hanoi, before spending nearly a decade working on major urban and architectural projects, notably in the fields of hospitality, office and cultural programmes, within internationally renowned agencies.
Driven by the reactivation of artisanal know-how, vernacular bioclimatic devices, and the hybridisation of architectural and landscape scales, Anas has developed a practice spanning urbanism, architecture and scenography between Rabat and Paris, within KAPT Studio, which he co-founded. At the same time, he is a guest professor at the School of Architecture of the International University of Rabat and at the Confluence Institute in Paris.
In 2023, Anas was shortlisted in the “Emerging Talent” category of the Institut du Monde Arabe Design Prize.
In 2024, he was awarded the “Europe 40under40®” and the Prix Spécial Zévaco by the Young Moroccan Architecture Awards.
Theo Pagnon
Théo Pagnon trained as an engineer and architect at the Ecole Spéciale des Travaux Publics de Paris and the École Nationale d'Architecture de Paris la Villette.
He spent almost a decade as an associate with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), an international architectural practice based in London, where he supervised work on the site of the Louvre Conservation Centre and won the competition for the Bayeux Tapestry Museum.
Thanks to his dual training, this structure and systems enthusiast brings a holistic and rigorous approach to his architectural practice, enabling him to tackle projects from the metropolitan scale to the mastery of execution details. He co-founded KAPT Studio, where he runs an independent practice covering the fields of urban planning, architecture and design in association with Anas Koubaiti.
At the same time, Théo teaches as a guest professor at the Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture and the Confluence Institute in Paris.
He is "Europe 40under40®" winner in 2024.