L'AUTRE CANAL, NANCY

The principle is to “hollow out” this urban space, characterized by its powerful, compact architectural style, and containing the very core of the program (the concert halls, the studios, offices, dressing rooms, etc.), and to pierce through it an interior street in bright red, situated on the ground level to facilitate access for the public and for equipment. This interior street is the user-friendly and functional “Fil Rouge” or “Connecting thread” [literally, “red thread”] of the project: it reveals and leads to the entire interiority of the facility.

The Fil Rouge is a multi-purpose, multi-functional area, variable in its geometry and in its ability to host different sorts of events in the reception area, the DJ soundstage-bar and the walkway.

The building is a solid block of concrete, slightly red tinted by the metal shuttering panels used to cast it. The texture of all of the facades is animated by a pattern of cuts in the walls, housing recessed lights that liven up the building differently during the day and at night when it can be turned into a magic lantern in the city, clearly identifying the building as a music center.