As a generator of cultural and artistic activity on the Garonne Heights, the Cultural Center in the Palmer City Park proposes a remarkable integration between performance and landscape. The project started with the unprecedented quality of the location for a major public facility, tucked inside a unique parcel of landscape and topography that defines la Garronne. The facility is designed to accommodate 2,000 spectators and the largest of national and international tournaments.

The project’s challenge is to create an “extroverted” architecture that opens onto the park while both protecting and deferring to the natural quality of the site. The project must simultaneously respect the landscaped park while bringing identity and visibility to Cenon’s cultural ambitions. The pleated hulls of its three performance volumes are sheltered by an outer shell of perforated steel. Their dimensions and geometries, designed for the greatest comfort of spectators and artists, settle into the topography of the park like a cluster of rocks on a gentle slope. more

Superimposed on the three volumes, the avenues of circulation are identified by glass panels. The glass galleries give a rhythm to the arrival of the public from the park in a processional sequence toward the “introverted” performance spaces. Within the interior, everything is arranged in response to the necessities of theater production, with an eye toward the highest levels of technical capability.

The set design elements are integrated into steel frames designed to correspond to the needs of live performance while echoing the vocabulary of the steel exterior. At night, light glows from the interior galleries and the foyers across the park and the garden patios, which may be used for open-air performances. The ensemble proposes a poetic promenade between landscape and theater. back

Credits

SCHEDULE
Competition 2006
Projected completion 2010
SIZE
6,500 sq. meters
BUDGET
15.8 mil. €
CLIENT
Town of Cenon
ARCHITECT AND LEAD DESIGNER: Bernard Tschumi
TEAM: Véronique Descharrières with Jean-Jacques Hubert, Vincent Prunier, Antoine Santiard, Alice Dufourmantelle, Loren Supp, Thad Nobuhara. back

Program: Cultural, Performance, Public Buildings