Danish architects BIG and French studio FREAKS freearchitects have
designed a cultural centre for Bordeaux with a huge stage in its middle.
Named MÉCA,
which is an acronym for Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture en
Aquitaine, the centre will provide a combined new home for visual arts
organisation FRAC, performing
arts centre the OARA and literature/movie organisation the ECLA.
The surrounding riverfront landscape
will ramp up through the building’s rectangular central hollow to provide a
public square for outdoor exhibitions and events that is directly above the
ground floor lobbies.
Both the building and the surrounding waterside promenade
will be clad in limestone, matching most of the city’s historical architecture.
BIG DESIGNS A MÉCA TO CULTURE IN
BORDEAUX, FRANCE
Team BIG+FREAKS freearchitects,
dUCKS scéno, Khephren Ingénierie, VPEAS, ALTO Ingénierie, Vincent Hedont, PBNL,
Mryk & Moriceau, Ph.A wins the competition to design a new 12 000 m2
cultural center on the riverfront of Bordeaux, merging three cultural
institutions into one single building.
The Regional Council of Bordeaux
selected the winning team among proposals from SANAA, the Toulouse-based firm
W-Architectures and Bordeaux-based FLINT.
BIG’s proposal arranges the new center for
contemporary art, the performing arts institution and the center for literature
and movies around a public space open towards the city of Bordeaux and the
Garonne River.
The building is conceived as a single loop of public space and cultural institutions as the pavement of the promenade rises to form the roof of the main lobbies, ascends vertically along the stage tower of OARA, bridges across the promenade with the sky lit galleries of the FRAC and returns vertically to the ground at the archives of the ECLA in order to reunite with the waterfront promenade.
“When a region or a city invests millions in a major new cultural institution – it often ends up benefiting only the informed few that already have an interest in the arts. Not only does the MÉCA spill its activities into the public realm and the urban room, but the public is also invited to walk around, through, above and below the new cultural gateway.
the MÉCA will provide opportunities for new hybrids of cultural
and social life beyond the specific definitions of its constituent parts.”
Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG. The urban room allows everyday life of
Bordeaux to flow through its generous frame along the promenade, injecting the
art into the city and the city life into the building.
The multiple ramps and stairs of
the building create an institution that is publicly accessible and welcoming on
the inside as well as the outside. The urban room and the informal seating of
the stairs will make the MÉCA a lively place and a natural extension of the
life along the Quai de Paludate street and the new promenade.
During festivals or other special occasions in
the city, the outside of the MÉCA can be transformed into a stage for outdoor
concerts, theatrical spectacles or art installations.
“The urban room is at once a frame for the artwork, a stage for the performances, a screening room for the media collections and most perhaps most importantly an open room for the urban life of Bordeaux to invade and engage with the arts.” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.
Tailored to accommodate the proportions of the performance spaces, the backstage requirements, the archives and the art galleries, the building is tailored to the needs and desires of its individual tenants while fused to form a single urban frame. The building and promenade is clad in the limestone which constitutes the majority of Bordeaux’s architecture.
As if carved from the same material as the
city itself – the stone is promenade and façade, stair and terrace, roof and
ceiling all together. “The three regional entities composing the program are
idiomatic to the French public way of supporting and promoting culture all over
the territory. Working on the MÉCA building in Bordeaux is a great occasion to
cross views and balance between international references and local issues.”
Guillaume Aubry, Cyril Gauthier & Yves Pasquet, Founding Partners, FREAKS
freearchitects
Name: MÉCA – Maison de l’Économie Créative et
de la Culture en Aquitaine
Type: Competition
Type: Competition
Size: 12 350 m2
Client: Conseil régional d’Aquitaine
Client: Conseil régional d’Aquitaine
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