Dominique Coulon & associés has been the architectural studio in charge of the project of the new building for the academy of music, theater and dance of the city of Montigny-le-Bretonneux, French town and commune, in the region of Ile-de-France, department of Yvelines, in the district of Versailles and canton of Montigny-le-Bretonneux. The plot chosen for the project is characterized by its triangulated shape.

Near the new building is the famous Les Arcades du Lac apartment block that Ricardo Bofill built in 1985, which can be seen from the new building. The project is an exquisite work by the architects in which contrasts take center stage to differentiate the different spaces that are accompanied by the future activities that will be housed inside.
Charles Aznavour is the name given to the latest project by the Dominique Coulon & associés studio, which is a new compact building, it seems to turn towards the south, to enjoy a better right-angle view of the street. The building has four levels. It includes theater rooms, a large black box auditorium, music rooms of different sizes, a recording studio, three dance rooms with changing rooms and an underground car park.

The irregularity stands out in the project, the spaces are distributed through an irregular axis that generously offers coexistence areas with views of the city or the main sections of the building, which also thanks to generating contrasts of lights, shadows and tones, the spaces look completely transformed and in some cases generates a feeling of confusion in the user. The strong bond generated is achieved through three large skylights that mark the ceiling and are distorted to better let in natural light from all sides.


Charles Aznavour Conservatoire of Music, Drama and Dance by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons.
 

Project description by Dominique Coulon & associés studio

The music, drama and dance academy building in the new town of Montigny-le-Bretonneux stands on a triangular site. It offers distant views of the famous apartment block Les Arcades du Lac that Ricardo Bofill made in 1985.

The compact building seems to turn to face south, to enjoy a better, right-angled view of the street. The structure seems to come apart to showcase the true size of its dance studio, which pivots to lie parallel with the road. Different forms collide, reflecting the site’s geometry. They offer vistas of the town and clear views of the interior.


Charles Aznavour Conservatoire of Music, Drama and Dance by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons.

The edifice’s outer sides feature transparent panes of reflective glazing and vertically striped surfaces that capture light. Their various textures are displayed side by side, which blurs the real scale of the building and endows the structure with an aura of strangeness and a wealth of interpretations. Its enigmatic outline suggests a cultural edifice.

The building has four levels. It includes drama rooms, a large black-box auditorium, music rooms of different sizes, a recording studio, three dance rooms with changing rooms, and an underground car park. The spaces are spread along an uneven axis that generously offers convivial areas looking out at the town or the building's main sections.

When you step into the entrance hall, you find yourself looking down at two tall basement spaces: the cavernous auditorium and the percussion room with a ceiling height that spans two floors and offers views of the instruments below.


Charles Aznavour Conservatoire of Music, Drama and Dance by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons.

The hallways are characterised by contrasts: walls of exposed concrete juxtapose shiny floors and ceilings. The spaces are dotted with large solid timber additions on all levels, making the convivial areas welcoming.

The lengthways cross-section is the view that best helps understand the strong bond that we have created between all these spaces. Three large skylights punctuate the ceiling, which becomes distorted to let in natural light from all sides better. A monumental staircase rises in this atrium, which unfolds diagonally, stretching up towards the light and dance rooms. Dichroic films cover the large panes of glass. Their colours change in accordance with your position and that of the sun. The spaces are tied together by this giant kaleidoscope diffusing ever-changing colours.

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Architects
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Dominique Coulon & associés. Dominique Coulon, Steve Letho Duclos, David Romero-Uzeda, Diego Bastos Romero.
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Collaborators
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Site supervision.- Diego Bastos Romero.
Perspectivist.- Denis Labanq.
Technical design - Structure.- Batiserf Ingénierie.
Technical design - Electricity.- BET Gilbert Jost.
Technical design - Fluids.- Solares Bauen.
Economist.- E3 Économie.
Acoustics and scenography.- Euro Sound Project.
Site scheduling, coordination and management.- IPCS.
Fire safety system.- SSI Consulting .
Assistant to contracting owner / Project planning engineer.- CAP Urbain.
Inspection agency and Coordinator for health and safety.- Dekra Industrial.
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Client
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Town of Montigny-le-Bretonneux.
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Contractors
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SNRB (excavation, carcass, screeds, structural steel work, sanitation and buried networks), Étanchéité du Nord (sealing), Mes et Ecal (exterior joinery), SARL Alkimia (metalwork), SEM BAT (plaster and false ceilings), Roux Frères (interior joinery, furnishings and parquet flooring), Les Peintures Parisiennes (glued-down flooring), Art Maniac (tiling, interior paintwork, final cleaning), NSA (lift), Eiffage Énergie (electricity), Nervet Brousseau (heating, ventilation, plumbing and sanitary facilities), Master Industrie (ranked seating), SAS Tambe (machinery and on-stage metalwork), AC2S (sound system, curtains, lighting and audiovisual).
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Area
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3,346 sqm.
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Dates
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Competition.- November 2016.
Design work.- May 2017 - November 2018.
Site work.- April 2019 - March 2022.
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Location
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1 Parvis Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 78180 Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France.
Location using Google Maps: 48°46'14.7"N 2°02'45.8"E
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Budget
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€ 9,700,000.
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Manufacturers
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Architectural Concrete.- Lafarge.
Saint-Gobain - solar control glazing - Mirastar.
Stretch acoustic ceiling.- Barrisol.
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Photography
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Dominique Coulon & associés. Located in the heart of Strasbourg, Dominique Coulon & Associés is a firm of architects of national and international renown.

For more than 25 years, the agency has earned a reputation for the quality of the public facilities it designs. It has worked on a wide and varied range of programmes, including a media library, music school, auditorium, school complex, swimming pool, sports facilities, a residential home for the dependent elderly, and housing.
 
Dominique Coulon and his three associates Steve Lethos Duclos, Olivier Nicollas and Benjamin Rocchi allow their intuition to lead the way as they seek to develop contextual projects that combine contrast and complexity, where the outer envelope hints at inner richness. Spatial quality and natural light are fundamental elements in every project: space is always controlled by precise geometry.

The agency has received many awards and distinctions: firstly in 1996 with the Prix de la Première Oeuvre for the ‘Pasteur’ lower secondary school in Strasbourg, followed by a number of nominations for the Équerre d’Argent award in 1999, 2002 and 2003. In 2006 it was a prize-winner in the PEB1 Compendium of Exemplary Educational Establishments organised by the OECD, for the ‘Martin Peller’ school complex in Reims. In 2008 it was nominated for the BSI Swiss Architectural Award and for the European Union prize awarded by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, for the National Drama Centre in Montreuil. It has received a Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award on three occasions. In 2014, it won the Pool Vision Contest prize in the ‘public pools’ category, for the swimming pool in Bagneux. In 2017 it received the first prize in the Eiffel Trophies rewarding steel architecture, for the Media Library (Third Place) in Thionville, and was nominated for the European Union prize awarded by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, for the residential home for the dependent elderly and the residential centre for handicapped people in Orbec.
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