Le Point du Jour, Eric Lapierre Designs the Hut of the 21st Century
16/10/2017.
[Cherbourg] France
metalocus, JOSÉ FABERO
metalocus, JOSÉ FABERO
Eric Lapierre shows us his cabin of the XXI century in Le Point du Jour.The art center,fully dedicated to photography, is Located in Cherbourg, France.
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Hélène Binet
Le Point du Jour by EL Architecture. Photograph © Paola Salerno
Ground Floor plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
First Floor plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Section plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Section plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Elevation plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Elevation plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Elevation plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Elevation plan. Le Point du Jour courtesy by EL Architecture.
Le Point du Jour art center, designed by the studio EL Architectura, is an attempt to build cultural amenities without money. It is a kind of look into the architecture of a future Europe that would have gained a new sobriety and meaning through the loss of the economic leadership. A primitive hut for the 21st century.
Project description by EL Architecture
A new building has to express the quality of its surroundings, whatever they are, on one hand, and to renew them by its presence, on the other hand : to transform a situation by giving it a new meaning. To achieve this goal the building is built in concrete with outer insulation and wrapped in a poor and cheap material, which is normally used to make waterproof out of sight flat roofs : sheets of asphalt protected by a thin layer of aluminum.
Through this architectonic identity, the building gets a direct link with surrounding ones – amongst them a Mac Donald’s restaurant and other commercial boxes typical of along-the-road architecture – all built in non permanent materials.
This materiality allows the building to find naturally its proper place in these outskirts, and makes it visible with its shinny look that reflects the ever changing color of this sea side city. At the same time abstract and very concrete, the art center gets a strong and discrete presence.
The inner space is made of rooms that divide it without any corridor. All materials are raw, without any transformation: tar on the ground floor to make it perceptible that exhibitions are free, because it is a public building that gets the same floor material as the pavement in front of it, plywood, concrete. It is plasterboard free construction, as plasterboard has been created to be used by badly payed workers without « savoir faire » and not allow beautiful, simple and solid detailing.
Perceived from the road, the building is a kind of small warehouse ; from the art school garden in which it is settled it looks like a big house : it addresses different contexts with a single and unitarian form.
Its main materials – waterproof on facade, tar on ground floor – are decontextualised in order to be perceived in a different way, with the strange feeling to discover things that one already knows, in an analogous way to the photographer that creates an image by taking it out of its context, to make the perception of reality stronger.
A book about the building is available : it includes a free cd of improvised music played in the building : ericlapierre@ericlapierre.com
More information
Architect
Éric Lapierre. EL Architecture
Structure consultant
Batiserf
Client
Ville de Cherbourg-Octeville
Area
600 m²
Year
2008
Cost
€HT 991,000
Adress
107, avenue de Paris, 50100 Cherbourg-Octeville. France
EL Architecture Eric Lapierre
Éric Lapierre.- is architect and theoretician of architecture. He is the founder and principal of Éric Lapierre Experience (ELEx), his Paris based organization that coordinates both his activities as builder and as writer. ELEx buildings are recognized on national and international level through many awards and publications. They aim at keeping architecture as a sophisticated cultural medium in the contemporary ordinary condition.
Éric Lapierre teaches design and theory of architecture at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Marne-la-Vallée Paris Est, and in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and has been guest teacher at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Université de Montréal (UdM), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and KU Leuven in Ghent.
Among other books, Éric Lapierre has edited Identification d’une ville – Architectures de Paris, 2002 ; Guide d’architecture de Paris 1900-2008, 2008 ; Le Point du Jour A Concrete Architecture, 2011 ; Architecture Of The Real, 2004.
Éric Lapierre teaches design and theory of architecture at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Marne-la-Vallée Paris Est, and in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and has been guest teacher at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Université de Montréal (UdM), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and KU Leuven in Ghent.
Among other books, Éric Lapierre has edited Identification d’une ville – Architectures de Paris, 2002 ; Guide d’architecture de Paris 1900-2008, 2008 ; Le Point du Jour A Concrete Architecture, 2011 ; Architecture Of The Real, 2004.
