Le Pont des Arts Cultural Centre

Programme

Cinemas, multi-purpose complex and rehearsal room for the music school.

A town centre cinema takes us back to a time when the cinema experience was collective, when it was a local event. This is the spirit which this project aims to embody. In terms of its form, the building fits into the context of the centre of Marcq-en-Barœul by exploiting two registers: first the emphatically horizontal ground floor with a broad strip setting back the glazed facades of the café and foyer, which offer connection to the pedestrian; second the fragmentary nature of the volumes on the upper levels which take up the grain and scale of the various built structures of the Place Doumer, along with the "tower" which recalls the cinemas of the 1930s. The layout of the volumes allows for a high terrace, a balcony overlooking the city, serving as a venue for outdoor screenings. The architects have been attentive to how the facility connects with the neighbouring housing. They have created two gardens which provide the necessary distance and allow generous light into the circulation spaces between the screens, which form two ‘faults’ in the ground floor plan. The material form of the envelope is based on the brickwork so characteristic of the architecture of northern France. In the interior, especially in the circulation spaces, the use of structural concrete contrasts industrialized construction methods with the skills of site-poured formwork. Tapestries evoking iconic film scenes by designers Chevalier Masson serve as tacit signage, marking the way to the screens. The cultural centre project has allowed the Place Doumer to be redeveloped. Unfortunately, this redevelopment still gives too much space to the car, not least because sharing the supermarket car park located just across the road would have sufficed. However, the architects have at least managed to take back a strip of land from car parking space, enabling a terrace to be installed.

Bernard Wittevrongel