Oriane le Roy Liberge
From NGO to Real Estate
"Be free, independent and an agent for change."
A licensed architect who works as quality assurance manager for Sully Promotion, Oriane Le Roy Liberge's job is to make sure that the firm's projects are in compliance with applicable environmental standards. "The position cuts across a lot of areas and requires interaction with all the people involved in a project, from project design to delivery," explains Oriane.
There are frequent meetings and constant monitoring of new environmental legislation. Founded in 1996, Sully Promotion is a real estate development manager in the central and Paris metropolitan regions of France in association with the real estate group Les Provinces, a real estate developer across France. Raymond le Roy Liberge, Oriane's father, is the founder and president of the company. Her brother Ivain has also worked for the family-owned company for the past five years. "We are from a family of entrepreneurs. My great grandparents were builders back in Cochinchina," explains Oriane. The Les Provinces Group embodies values generally used when describing family businesses such as a sense of commitment and service, a long-term vision and prudent management. This explains in all likelihood the group's steady growth in scarcely fifteen years, but that is not the only explanation. As a matter of fact, its international focus puts it in a unique position in France's real estate development market. "Part of my family lived in Morocco and some members of our family moved abroad. So, we know how to adapt to other cultures and not to stick steadfastly to one single way of seeing things," says Oriane. How does this young architect manage to bring this perspective of the world to her work?
When she was a teen, Oriane was a member of a number of clubs and groups and loved comic books. As hospital volunteer, she brought cheer to patients and considered medicine. However, destiny decided otherwise for, as a young girl, Oriane was very talented at drawing and someone recommended that she might want to think about architecture. Although she had doubts, Oriane enrolled in the National Advanced School of Architecture in Versailles in 1999. "I fell head over heels from day one," she says. A year later, she was one of two thousand 20-year olds in 2000 selected by the French Culture Ministry to take part in the Reporter 2000 initiative. For two months, she travelled across Europe and reported the experience in articles and photos. "I learned to travel alone with just a backpack," explains Oriane. She decided to continue the adventure, applied to the Erasmus study abroad program and went on to study at the Valladolid University in Spain. After returning to France, she focused her academic endeavors as much as possible on international issues, like in China or Brazil.
At a conference she attended, she met Patrick Coulombel, President of the Emergency Architects Foundation, a French NGO founded in 2001. The foundation aims to help populations affected by natural, technological or human disasters to rebuild housing and restore basic infrastructure. The first phase involves providing a rapid response to an emergency situation with an immediate evaluation of the risks and strategic measures needed to stabilize the situation. Another phase is the actual reconstruction phase—housing is rebuilt and infrastructure restored (schools, hospitals, etc.). This phase is carried out working in close partnership with local communities, governments and aid organizations that bring their knowledge of the terrain and their unique experience while program officers use their professional experience, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of each of the parties. To help local communities become as self-sustaining as possible, experienced professionals run training programs onsite, covering all construction jobs. It is also about helping get the economy up and running again by using local materials with sustainable housing solutions, while preserving the architectural, historical and cultural heritage. " This NGO fulfilled my various interests—architecture, humanitarian aid on the ground, languages, etc. Working with them after I graduated was meaningful, " says Oriane.
In January 2007, the young architect who had earned her architectural degree a year earlier flew out to Indonesia to take part on the design and building of some fifty housing units in order to re-house victims of an earthquake.The project was so successful that the local community also asked them to build a daycare center and then a kindergarten. "The project was well managed and the local community was very much involved. What is more, our paraseismic construction technicians were being hired to work on construction projects other than ours, which was proof of the mission's success," she recounts. In 2009, the project received the Architecture and Project Management Award for a Housing and Environmental Initiative for the quality of the work and the dialogue maintained between the project engineering and the project management groups. "This experience made me realize that I really enjoyed initiating and putting together projects and managing teams," comments Oriane. She then moved on to a mission in Sri Lanka. That involved building sixty housing units for people in a country where there was an armed conflict. "It was radically different from Indonesia because the people in the north of Sri Lanka have been uprooted. The tsunami and war left deep scars. Because of security issues, supervising the worksite and managing the construction materials was very complicated," she admits. Oriane put her all into it and worked tirelessly to deliver the housing on time. "In a situation like that, you feel like you're making a difference because you show people that reconstruction is possible concretely and also symbolically," she explains.
Wanting to gain more solid experience in the profession and aware that it's hard to have a family and a career in humanitarian aid, Oriane opted to stay in France. She initially worked designing housing and infrastructure for the Alain Derbesse architectural firm and then she went to work for Gérard Franc where she gained experience in building office and service buildings. "I gained experience in a variety of areas," explained Oriane who decided, on the strength of these experiences, to join the family-owned business to gain greater experience from the perspective of real estate developer working with project managers which she so brilliantly began in Indonesia. Long live the family motto: "Be free, independent and an agent for change."
What inspires her? "Travel promotes developing a critical perspective and openness to other cultures to different types of architecture. It's very stimulating."