Cité musicale de l’ile Seguin

Ile Seguin, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France
2017

At the “prow” of the island of Seguin, the Cité Musicale solves the paradox of remaining in perfect continuity with the urban planning project of Jean Nouvel, while at the same time constituting a signal, an emblem of the culture of Hauts-de-Seine. On the downstream end, the foundation is inclined, and allows a nest of woven wood with rounded shapes to emerge. This detaches itself from the general silhouette of the island and affirms its presence. It announces the specificity of a prestigious public and cultural program: at the interior one notices the iridescent hull of the auditorium and the activity of its foyers. To the sides, a silver sail protects it from direct sunlight. This photovoltaic solar sail is always in movement, orienting itself following the course of the sun and permitting optimal energy production.

The program organizes itself along the Grand Foyer, the spine of the project. A public reception area, this Grand Foyer is a generous and functional space that serves the public programs: the Great Hall, the Auditorium, Business Space, and the Rehearsal/Recording Poles. It is thought of as an extension of the public space in the interior of the Cité Musicale. Here we find stores, cafes, and restaurants open to all. It is flexible, and of generous dimensions in order to accommodate a great variety of events.
The Great Hall of the Cité Musicale is made to respond to the most ambitious programming. It inscribes itself in the tradition of popular Parisian great halls, all while being a veritable scenographic tool allowing for a wide variety of spectacles: concerts, musicals, live theater, conventions, etc. The hall is simple, functional, comfortable, and flexible. Its occupancy capacity is 4000 people if seated, with room for 6000 in sitting/standing position. Through scenic arrangements, which allow for extreme adaptability, the room can be adapted to all kinds of events and occupancy.

The auditorium of 1150 places, conceived specifically for accommodating a symphonic orchestra or contemporary music, is a space with excellent acoustics, designed with the precision of an instrument. It is a concert hall of the “vineyard” type — a typology retained for acoustic criteria as well as scenographic qualities. The audience is spread across multiple terraces all around the stage, creating a large geographic and sensory proximity between the musicians and the audience. Acoustically, the surfaces that compose the different terraces allow for early reflections of the orchestra, intensifying the feeling of intimacy with the musicians.
La Cité Musicale is a space of emotion, of practicality, and of sound, for discovery of all kinds of music. It is also an architecture inscribed into an urban area that is open to all. It is capable of receiving varied events: artistic, political, festive, commercial, etc. It will be a new symbol of the Vallée de la Culture and of the Grand Paris, an architectural gesture of international standards.

Icône Papillon Louis Vuitton

Siège Louis Vuitton, 75008 Paris, France
2006

The project was undertaken as part of an exhibition in which several artists and architects were invited to work on the subject of a “Louis Vuitton” handbag.
The exhibition, installed at first in the 7th floor gallery of the Vuitton building on the Champs- Elysees in Paris, but will travel to New York and Tokyo in the future. The team composed of Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines has chosen to work on the « Papillon » (butterfly) model, and has installed a temporary dome structure made of cardboard tubes covered with Louis Vuitton cloth and a white PVC cloth.

In order to respond to the theme of the exhibition, the details of construction are borrowed from the vocabulary of the leather trade. For example, the braced frames of the structure have been designed with leather recalling the handles of the Papillon purse. Located on the 7th floor at the corner of Avenue George V and Rue Vernet, the project offers visitors a privileged space to enjoy the impressive views of Paris.

Centre Pompidou-Metz

57000 Metz, Moselle, France
2010

On the edge of the site (Amphitheatre district), the Project House opened in June 10, 2006. This area provides the public with information about the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
Two containers located at the extreme ends of the space define a unique exhibit space while also serving as the support for the roof. In order to achieve an open space, the architects designed a roof made of two surfaces of 10 meters each, supported by only two columns arranged in an inverted and marking the entrance to the space.

By means of a large glazed facade facing the passage of the Amphitheatre, the Project House is a showcase for the Centre Pompidou-Metz, documenting the evolution of the project up until its inauguration. The use of simple and inexpensive materials reflects the temporary nature of this project.
The Project House offers visitors a fun and educational decoding of the Centre Pompidou-Metz: its cultural and geographical context, its vocation, its timetable, news, its architecture. The public discovers the project through text and photographs, plans, 3D images, multimedia and broadcasting of live views of the site, the majority devoted to the architecture via the presentation of models, material samples, drawings and perspectives. A space is dedicated to the presentation of the Centre Pompidou and the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, through some of its works. The 136 m2 of exhibition facilitates visitors understanding of the project and by monitoring its construction. By visiting the observation area overlooking the construction site, they can observe the daily progress of the work.

Institut du canal de Bourgogne et Halle du Toueur

21320 Pouilly-en-auxois, Côte d’or, France
2005

These two projects come from a mission which has been granted to Shigeru Ban in the context of « nouveaux commanditaires » (new sponsors), the goal of which is the creation of art works (of all types, not only architectural) that establish a dialog with their context. The “Centre d?interprétation du Canal de Bourgogne” includes a series of artists’ projects and architectural works by different architects. The “Institut du Canal? and the ?Halle du Toueur” are the first two projects to be completed in Pouilly en Auxois.

The first project is a small museum designed as a glass box with a flat roof and set at the angle of the canal and a pond. The unique character of this project resides in its structure, which is composed of a series of standard galvanized angles normally used for the building of storage shelves. In this case they are used as load bearing elements for the building as well as supports for the museum exhibits. The “Halle du Toueur” is a vaulted hangar built with cardboard tubes linked together with aluminum sleeves, covered by a transparent finely corrugated polycarbonate skin. The structure protects an old tugboat which was used to tow the boats along the canal. It is open at each end, allowing visitors to access the structure from either direction.

Passerelle Temporaire

30210 Vers, Pont du Gard, France
2007

The bridge consists of two truss arches connected by horizontal elements forming the deck. It has a span of 20 m, a vertical clearance of 5 m and a width ranging from 4 m to 5.80 m in the center to the ends. The passage width is 1.4 m.
The two beams are post-tensioned mesh, composed of cardboard tubes, connected by metal nodes.
The cardboard tubes work in compression. Tension forces applied to the tubes are resolved by a threaded rod inside each tube and attached to each end of them.
A cable network provides post-tensioning of the structure and wind bracing.
The cardboard tubes used have an outer diameter of 11.5 cm and a thickness of 19 mm.