Location: Albi, France.

Architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture.

The Albi Grand Theatre is set to become a cultural hub in the city, with a network of public spaces and cultural facilities surrounding it. The theatre will be the center of the “Alley of Culture,” a walkway that will lead from the cathedral to the Rochegude public park. The cinemas will be located near the theatre, with the preserved Athanor building modified to create the entrance. The theatre’s simple geometry allows it to fit into its urban surroundings, with the four sides of the prism opened and inhabited. The building is made of concrete covered with bricks, with a metal mesh cover that will take on the verticality of the building on two sides and open up on the other sides. The mesh will filter light and break wind and rain, and can be adjusted to suit the spaces and uses it covers. The tight veil will clear up some big arks at the public spaces level, to let the visitors and spectators come in, and then will rise up in the sky over the built volume to create an immaterial figure coming up in the landscape from the roofs of the city of Albi. The building’s design is sustainable, with the mesh adjusting to the spaces and uses it covers, and the material used for the outside as much as the inside, for the floors as much as the walls and the ceilings, to create a mono material architecture. The building’s roof-terrace will feature a hanging garden and restaurant, offering an open view of the city of Albi and the surrounding landscape.

Photo credit: Manuel Panaget