Cultural Center by Atelier 56S

The renovation of this old traditionnal house into a house of culture was the opportunity to redefine two public spaces and link them together.

Architect: Atelier 56S
Location: Saint-Pierre-de-Plesguen, France
Completion: 2017
Gross built area: 350sqm
Photo credits: Jeremias Gonzalez

From the architects: The aim of the project is to create an interaction between the important Ange Denis place to the east and the small courtyard to the West. The main architectural intervention was to open the Eastern facade, which was totally closed.

The existing construction is composed of a main building, and two secondary elements on each side, both are two storeys high. All the service spaces are gathered in the main building to free the wings of the building for the four required functions. Flexibily, sobriety and respect for the existing building summarize the goals of this rehabilitation project.

On the ground floor, in the southern wing, a third place space is created, it is an informal space that allows interactions between the visitors of the building. To the north, a multipurpose space will host conferences, expositions and concerts. On the first floor, the media library is divided between a reading room for adults and a playing and reading room for children

The old stone walls are left apparent inside the library, the ground flooring is dark concrete and sometimes perforated metal for acoustic performances, above, an oak floorboards flooring offers a cosy atmosphere to all the reading areas, also, a wood fiber ceiling was chosen for acoustic comfort.

In the yard behind the new house of culture, tiles were saved from the existing building to compose a calm public space sheltered from the road.

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