Every morning, Romain Gazzola takes the same route to join the family masonry business in Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d’Oise) from his home on Place de Clichy, in Paris, checking, more out of habit than necessity, his navigation software Waze before hitting the road behind the wheel of his gray Citroën Picasso. But at the beginning of 2019, as the “yellow vest” crisis grows, the application confuses him and recommends that he follow the banks of the Seine. Stuck in a traffic jam, he lets his eyes wander when his attention is drawn to a surprising group of dilapidated red brick buildings on the side of the road.
He then decided to park in a double line in this unused area of the Pleyel-Confluence district, in Saint-Denis, and set off to explore the place. “After five seconds, I knew that I wanted to create here a place that would bring together the companies of our group, modeled after the old suburb or the Italian bottega of Antiquity and the Renaissance: these places brought together different buildings and decorations. art dealers, but also mathematicians, philosophers and artists like Raphaël or Leonardo da Vinci”, explains the young entrepreneur of Italian origin.
His great-great-grandfather Eugenio Gazzola, an immigrant mason born in Piacenza (Emilia-Romagna), between Milan and Parma, settled in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.e century Each generation expands the company, already specialized in high-quality masonry and exceptional projects, such as the shaking of Vincennes wood.
“Our family has always thought of freemasonry as an artistic profession, although prejudices about this activity are huge, especially since the industrialization of the construction sector in the 1950s, with the arrival of large companies like Bouygues and the disqualification of the profession, associated with immigration on huge dehumanized construction sites”, underlines Romain Gazzola, who wants to highlight the nobility of this discipline since he took over the family business with his cousin in 2010.
Optimum organization
Seduced by his vision for the profession and his ability to redesign Gazzola, other building trades specializing in high-end projects called on him, before he acquired additional know-how over time. About ten companies now make up the young group: Atelier Tourtoulou (decorative painting), Ateliers Bataillard & Maison Meilleur (art ironsmiths), Parquets Briatte (the last one who knows how to restore the parquet floors of Versailles), Marbrerie de Vitry or again Bernard. Pictet, specialist in glass applied to decoration and architecture. “I was convinced that the idea of setting up here together would allow imitation between these factories, to create bridges,” rejoices Romain Gazzola.
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