L’Autre Canal Concert Hall in Nancy

Architects: Périphériques, Paris
Structural engineers: Ingerco, Paris

“L’autre Canal” (The Other Channel) is the name that has been given to this concert hall for young people. Not only ear-splitting rock concerts take place here (earplugs are available free of charge at the entrance), but also dance performances, disco and chanson evenings. The motivation for the construction of the hall was the Scène de Musique actuelles (SMAC), a programme drawn up by the French Ministry of Culture and the Arts with the aim of consolidating the network of cultural facilities offered in particular to young people. In recent years, concert halls of a similar calibre have been created in Brest, Caen, Saint-Étienne and Rouen. In most cases, they were built on disused industrial sites with good public transport connections.

For some years now in Nancy, too, a 19th-century industrial area in the north-east of the city close to the centre has been undergoing a process of urban revitalization. Plans exist to develop housing, commercial buildings and a faculty of architecture here. For that reason, acoustic screening played a major role in the concept for the concert hall. The architects responded to this by designing a compact, soundproof bunker that would attract attention from afar with rows of offset fluorescent tubes along the facade. Screened off acoustically, the building nevertheless opens itself visually to the surroundings, revealing its special content.

This was accomplished by creating a “fil rouge” — a common thread — that runs through the entire building and that manifests itself on the four facades as well. The entrance also glows bright red like a wide-open mouth, drawing visitors into a foyer designed in the same colour and containing seating for a bar and cafe. In combination with the monochrome coloration, the curved transitions between wall and ceiling, between the floor and fixed installations conjure associations of the slaughterhouse that once stood on this site. The organic, red forms are strikingly contrasted with the hard edges of the cool exposed concrete, which is evident not only in the facade, but in the corridors on the upper level. Located here are a restuarant, offices, rehearsal spaces and artists’ dressing rooms.

A distinguishing feature of the two concert halls is the use of dark expanded metal laid over acoustic panels and reinforced concrete. Movable stages and rows of seating that can be lowered below floor level allow a wide range of uses and the accommodation of audiences of different sizes. One special feature of this project, however, is that musicians — whether soloists or bands, amateurs or professionals — can hire rehearsal spaces for very little money. Fitted out with musical instruments, mixing desks and recording equipment, these provide the standard of a professional recording studio.

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This article is an excerpt from DETAIL — Review of Architecture

   

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