Culture Loop

Video: Culture Loop

Video: SU MV Loop: POP CULTURE (Madeon) 2024, November

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 00:52

MÉCA stands for "House of Creative Economy and Culture in New Aquitaine": on 18,000 m2 there are three state regional institutions - FRAC (contemporary art), ALCA (literature, cinema and multimedia) and OARA (performing arts). They provide citizens with access to culture and support authors and artists of all professions, giving them the opportunity to be creative.

BIG architects and their Parisian partners Freaks thought not only about the regulars of concerts and exhibitions, but also about the wider audience. To attract her to MÉCA, they made the building permeable, connected with its surroundings: the embankment of the Garonne River in front of it and the city streets behind it smoothly turn into a promenade that leads to the “urban living room” - a terrace of 1100 m2 at the bottom of a large opening, the most visible part resembling a frame the buildings. There you can relax and admire the river, and also look through the large windows into the OARA ballet studio, and from the other side - through a kind of periscope - into the lobby below (from there you can see this terrace in the same way). The similarity to the living room is enhanced by the "chandelier" - the abbreviation MÉCA of LEDs suspended from above.

The sides of the "frame" are, on the one hand, OARA spaces with a black transforming hall for 250 seats and the aforementioned studios, on the other - ALCA with a decorated red cinema hall for 80 spectators, two production studios and an "incubator" for projects. The upper part is occupied by FRAC - exhibition galleries with 7 m high ceilings, storage rooms, artists' workshops, a hall for 90 people and a cafe. The 850 m2 rooftop terrace is suitable for installations and performances, concerts and similar events can also be organized in the “city living room”.

On the ground floor, there is the main entrance of MÉCA, the lobby and the Le CREM restaurant: for it BIG architects created red furniture and cork chairs, recalling the wine industry, the most important industry in the region.

The façades of the building are clad with 4,800 prefabricated concrete panels weighing up to 1.6 tonnes, containing particles of golden sandstone typical of Bordeaux development. After sandblasting, the surface of the panels acquired a rich texture, the sandstone became more visible.