PALOMA in Nîmes by TETRARC
16/01/2013.
[Nîmes] France
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Nantes-based architecture studio Tetrarc Architectes have recently completed the Paloma contemporary music complex in Nimes, France. Situated in southern France, Nîmes is a popular tourist destination and is well known as an exuberant city filled with artists.
Giant screen announces events. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Giant screen announces events. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Outside vision from the North. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Outside vision from the South. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Patio. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Cafe. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Club. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Auditorium. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Façade detail. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Interior stairs. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Façade detail. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
In progress. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Auditorium. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Auditorium. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Night vision. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Night vision. PALOMA by TETRARC. Photography by Stéphane Chalmeau.
Constructive principles. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Constructive principles. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Structure. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Section. PALOMA by TETRARC.
First Level Plan. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Ground Floor Plan. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Roof floor plan. PALOMA by TETRARC.
Tetrarc has fed on Nîmes’ special identity in order to create the complex dedicated to contemporary music that has just been opened at the entrance to the town between a flying club and a district made up of a mix of low rise buildings, houses and small local businesses. The complex consists of two concert halls, twelve rehearsal and recording studios, six accommodation areas for performers in residence, offices and technical facilities.
Tetrarc has devised a giant zinc polyhedron at the entrance of the city. This zinc shell actually stretches, frays, even tears apart in some parts in order to display – like a big eye – the giant screen which announces performances and artists.
This is also an internal event. Viewing the concert as a confrontation between artists and public, Tetrarc uses the colours of the bullfight (yellow and purple) for the foyer, the stairs and the patio; red in the foyers at the entrance to the two halls; the geometry of the bullfighter’s movements are represented by the congealed textures on the walls of the hall; images of a crowd seated in an arena are projected onto the seats in the big hall. The walls of this hall display a giant sculpture whose material evokes the sleekness of the picadors’ hair, and whose form evokes a gigantic cog like the one grinding the men in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.
For Tetrarc, the architecture is at the confluence of artistic expression. There is an echo of the cinema of Spielberg and Chaplin. The visual arts are a feature of the foyer conceived like a penetrable sculpture opened out into the interior space of the shell as well as the small hall, the studios and the performers’ restaurant which plays tribute to abstract geometric art, whilst the big repetitive stripes on the patio evoke the work of the Support-Surface group, a well known presence in Nîmes. The design is linked to the music roots evident in the choice of vintage furnishings redolent of the 1960s in the restaurant and the performers’ apartments.
With a wide range of cultural references, Tetrarc’s project has also articulated an accurate program: the different entrances (public, administration, performers, materials) are clearly separated; the halls are served directly from the vast foyer opening onto the patio, the sales area for associated products, the cloakroom and the radio studio; the three stages are directly connected and on the level of a single loading bay for the lorries that supply the equipment.
More information
Architects
Project team
Project Manager.- Michel Bertreux. Project Director.- Rémi Tymen. Study.- Olivier Perocheau, Richard Sicard, Florent Delaboudinière, Timothée Naux. Landscape Designer.- Louise Follin. Computer Graphics Designer.- Mikaël Trocmé. Construction site.- Guillaume Blanchard, Marc-Antoine Bouyer, Alice Pedel.
Collaborators
BET Structure_ E2C (Structures), BET Fluides and HQE_ AREA, OPC_ CMB + Bernard Poissonier, ECONOMIST_CMB (Economist), Architecture et Technique (Scenography), Atelier ROUCH (Acoustics).
Client
City of Nîmes.
Area
Total Area.- 5.611 m².
Surface Large room.- 956m².
Areas Small room.- 221m².
Studio surfaces.- 314 m².
Surface Large room.- 956m².
Areas Small room.- 221m².
Studio surfaces.- 314 m².
Program
Concert hall (1300 seats), Club room (390 seats), 7 recording and training studios, 6 studios for artists in residence, offices.
Dates
Competition.- 2008.
Design.- 2009/2010.
Construction site.- end of 2011/ 2012.
Completion.- September 2012.
Design.- 2009/2010.
Construction site.- end of 2011/ 2012.
Completion.- September 2012.
Location
250, chemin de l'aérodrome, Nîmes, France.
Photography
Stéphane Chalmeau.
Nantes TETRARC
TETRARC, founded in 1988 in Nantes, discusses the architecture of very large: town planning, public spaces, new construction, industrial design, scenography and museum. Its four members (Michel Bertreux, Alain Boeffard, Claude Jolly and Jean Pierre Macé) are followers of the idea of total art and consider architecture as a poetic meaning. Appropriating the city in a fun way, the group develops buildings systematically seek to transform events into multifaceted complexity of programs and places. Its aim is to stimulate a new perspective on the city and strengthen its appropriation by expressive interventions, printing as second nature to the urban morphology.
TETRARC uses a vocabulary organic to break the orthogonality of the City and affix the personal brand of the group.
Act.>. 01/2013
