The French architecture studio Dominique Coulon & associés has completed “La Boussole”, the new Culture and Tourism center in the city of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, in the northeast of France. With an area of more than 4,800 sqm, the complex is built on an old disused administrative complex that was completed during the reconstruction of the city.

Located in the heart of the city, the new spaces of the cultural center are designed to break the monotony of the original buildings that were once the police station, the superior court and the city chamber of commerce, which were arranged in around a central patio. The architects project a new structure that, together with a calendar of events, favors the meeting of both individuals and groups.
The new center designed by Dominique Coulon & associés studio has a wide range of public spaces (including an exhibition hall, a video game center and a seed library). These spaces are distributed on the ground floor and first floor. Instead, the warehouses are in the basement and the administrative offices are on the second floor.

Where the old patio was previously located, we now find a large central solar atrium 7 meters high, where the structure of the roof, in red and yellow colors, paints the natural light, generating a play of colors in the interior that also is enhanced by a large suspended cubic volume which faces are mirrors. Added to this are two sets of bright red terraces, placed in staggered rows on the sides of the reading space, which are the hallmark of this project.


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons
 

Project description by Dominique Coulon & associés

The town of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges wanted to turn a disused administrative site, dating back to the period when the town was rebuilt, into a cultural centre with a media library, a tourist information centre and a 4,800 sqm floor area. The old complex was made up of a central courtyard and several buildings next to one another. These buildings once housed the town’s police station, high court and chamber of commerce. We thought that it would be a good idea to bring these different sections together to offer a complex centred upon a vast communal space.

We chose to do this because ‘La Boussole’, a new centre for culture and tourism that opened in 2023, is not only a hub for learning and leisure: it can also lay claim to the status of a ‘third place’. Indeed, its new structure and events schedule encourage encounters, both between individuals and groups. We decided that the new exhibition room would close the elevation on the street Rue Jean-Jacques Baligan and that a glass roof, tinted with red and yellow, would crown the former courtyard. Like an openwork tealight holder, this concrete structure casts natural light in geometric shapes of flat tints. And a suspended cubic space with a mirror finish underlines the effect of spatial tension that we were looking for.


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons


From this approach, a central solar atrium with a 300 sqm floor area was born. Its ceiling is seven metres high. Here, spaces for work and relaxation adjoin each other seamlessly, creating a continuum: an indoor landscape and a core that visually brings together the main areas of the programme in its double height. Indeed, this new centre offers a wide range of public spaces (including an exhibition room, a video games hub and a seed library). These spaces are spread out over the ground floor and first floor. The storerooms are in the basement. And the administrative offices are on the second floor.  

Two bright-red sets of terraces are a hallmark of this project. They are placed in staggered rows on the sides of the reading space, amplifying the sense of convergence towards this centre of social gravity.

By creating storerooms beneath the former courtyard, we were able to raise the latter by one metre and thereby offer a same-level connection to the existing building. Furthermore, a reading garden now lies where a car park did, on the south side.


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons


La Boussole by Dominique Coulon & associés. Photograph by Eugeni Pons


The building’s elevations have been restyled and pared down to showcase the architectural design that characterised the reconstruction of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. And through their elegantly understated design, the new spaces are at home here.

These different new spaces are designed to break with the monotony of the original buildings. They are architectural statements that give ‘La Boussole’ its new identity. These additions create markers that have each been crafted in a particular way. The series of alternating open and closed spaces create a sense of surprise when you discover the place. That is why we chose to produce a coiling movement from the large forecourt and its gentle slope. This forecourt runs along the western elevation, offering views into the gallery inside, then takes you to the main reception, from where your gaze is drawn to the central atrium bathed in natural light and, on its right, the transparency of the southern elevation that looks out at the reading garden.

More information

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Architects
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Dominique Coulon & associés. Lead Architect.- Dominique Coulon.
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Collaborators
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Project supervision.- Steve Letho Duclos, Javier Gigosos Ruipérez.
Assistant architects.- Hannes Libis, Mathilde Blum, Yannick Signani.
Worksite supervision.- Javier Gigosos Ruipérez.
Engineering consulting firm (Structure).- Batiserf Ingénierie.
Engineering consulting firm (Electricity).- BET Gilbert Jost.
Engineering consulting firm (Fluids).- Solares Bauen.
Economics.- E3 Économie.
Acoustics.- ESP-DB Silence.
Landscape gardener.- Bruno Kubler.
IT security.- BET Gilbert Jost.
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Developer
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Communauté d’Agglomération de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (public authority of the Saint-Dié-des-Vosges urban area).
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Area
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4,819 sqm.
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Dates
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Competition.- December 2016.
Examination of project.- January 2017 to October 2018.
Project execution.- April 2019 to November 2022.
Delivery.- 2024.
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Location
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2 place Jules Ferry, 88100 Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France.
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Budget
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10,533,000 € excl. VAT.
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Manufacturers
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Arches Démolition (demolition and asbestos removal). ID Verde (gardens). Batico 88 (general earthworks, structural works, metal framework, elevation restoration). SAS Coanus (roofing, watertightness, glass roof). René HELLUY (exterior metalwork). LAUGEL et RENOUARD (locks, fences, gates). KAPP Échafaudages (scaffolding). Plâtriers et Plaquistes de l’Est PPE (plasterwork, indoor suspended ceilings). HUNSINGER (indoor joinery, furniture). Francesconi (tiling). Europ Revêtements (glued-down flooring). SARL LENOIR F et N (indoor paintwork, cleaning and finishing works). LTBO Ascenseurs (lifts). BRUYNZEEL rangements SAS (mobile shelving). SARL Éric Theisen (plumbing, sanitary installations, wastewater system). DALKIA (heating, ventilation). SODEL (electricity).
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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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