About

Maéva Leneveu was born in Bangkok, Thailand, into a French Vietnamese–Laotian household. Early childhood was shaped by movement and cultural diversity. At the age of two, she moved to Singapore, where she spent her formative years until eleven.

Her teenage years were marked by constant transitions, that led her between Gaborone in Botswana, the coastal town of La Rochelle in France, Perth in Australia, and Singapore. These experiences fostered an early familiarity with travel, adaptation, and discovery — an exposure to different climates, landscapes, and ways of living that would later influence her architectural sensibility.

At eighteen, she began her architectural studies in Paris. During this time, she participated in a workshop in China, followed by a six-month internship in Beijing within a large-scale architectural firm involved in major cultural projects, including an opera house. Additional professional experiences were gained in small to mid-sized architecture studios in Paris, contributing to projects located in Ivory Coast and Morocco.

After completing her Master’s degree in Architecture, she moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she spent five years working on high-end retail and hospitality projects. During this period, she simultaneously completed the HMONP (Habilitation à la Maîtrise d’Œuvre en Nom Propre), the French professional qualification that authorises architects to practice independently and assume full responsibility for projects.

A six-month journey through New Zealand followed, before pursuing a Diploma in Building Design in Sydney. This additional training allowed her to deepen her technical expertise and adopt advanced BIM methodologies. Since then, her work has been developed exclusively through BIM tools.

Upon returning to France, she became a registered architect and established her own practice under the name allez-viens. Inspired by the French expression meaning “come along,” the name reflected a belief in architecture as a shared process, where the client is fully involved throughout the project’s development.

As the practice evolved, its architectural identity became more defined — increasingly rooted in climate, materiality, and a dialogue with the environment, strongly influenced by tropical and traditional Southeast Asian architecture. To reflect this evolution and her personal ties to the region historically known as Suvarnabhumi, the studio was renamed Maison Suvanna.

The new name affirms both origin and direction: an architectural practice grounded in cultural heritage, attentive to place, and shaped by a life lived across continents.