Both buildings have a white metal façade designed by artist Hervé di Rosa. Its 2,900 m² mesh shows various caricatured sea animals in a reference of the town's relationship with the Mediterranean.
Description of project by A+Architecture
A+Architecture has just completed the redevelopment of a new district at the gates of Cap d’Agde.
The agency has also completed two major facilities which, like two white concrete pearls, signal the renewal of this of this area, the Palais des Congrès and the Casino.
A vast gently sloping promenade links them to the port, the heart of this seaside town created by Jean Le Couteur during the Racine mission.
Emblematic of the development, the Palais des Congrès has become the resort’s new showcase. Connected to the Casino by a set of circular walkways, the complex offers a formidable and unprecedented threedimensional pedestrian square that also creates a seamless connection between the new seaside resort in Agde and its historic town located a few kilometres inland.
The Palais hall extends over three levels, all three of which connect to one of the winding walkways. A very playful spatial organisation allows easy access from inside and outside, on foot or by bicycle, to all the facility’s services: lobby, exhibition hall, offices, meeting rooms and an auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,200, where turquoise blue, the only accent colour in this white complex, evokes the waves of the Mediterranean.
A large, gently sloping square is on the roof of the complex. Perched high above the site and on one side, a panoramic room, whose shape evokes a Solen (a bivalve shell commonly called a razor shell), offers exceptional views of the entire surrounding landscape.
In close collaboration with A+Architecture, Hervé di Rosa, an artist from Sète, played with the theme of the seabed in a mischievous way to design the 2,900 m² white metal mesh sculpture that covers the two buildings of this belvedere between land, sea and sky.
A unique proposal, at the crossroads of two different types of work experimented with by Hervé Di Rosa in recent years: seascape paintings and cut metal sculptures.
For this piece, the artist combined both of these techniques and designed a cut-out metal seascape. It exemplifies allthe characteristic features of Di Rosa’s work: a generous accumulation, benevolent figures, an anchoring in the local area and evidence of drawing in the design.
Sea anemones, moray eels, sardines, jellyfish, starfish, clams, wolfish, octopuses, squid, St Pierre fish, crabs, sea bream, mullet, red mullet, damselfish and hake populate this living façade around the Youth of Agde statue, a local treasure.
The work is composed of 6 panels, each of which is 90 cm wide and 3 m high. These 6 panels create a subtle repetition on the façade that combines symmetries and differences. It is through this work that art meets architecture.
In addition to being the symbol of the renewal of Cap d’Agde, the complex (conference centre and casino) is thus also the largest work of art in the world of the artist (surface area of 2,900 m²).
