9/9 Bis The Metaphone

The initial brief from the client, the Hénin- Carvin Interdistrict Counsel, was very broad: “Living, working, creating in a park, human capital as the framework for a new development, an exemplary environmental approach.”

The aim of the approach was to restore the positive image of the 9/9bis through a cultural project, in order to make it a centre of attraction and to revive economic activity. Changing image: this transformation entails the refurbishment of the existing buildings, which are preserved with all the original machines, and the introduction of innovative contemporary architectures.

In the architectural design phase, we took the idea further: the project’s ambition is local, but also national and even international, seeking to attract a mix of visitors and users. For this reason, in addition to the revitalised historical legacy, the project needed a contemporary act that would crystallise the site’s new acoustic and musical location.

The game rules of the 9/9bis project are clear: all the new constructions (the Métaphone®, BT01) are contemporary and innovative in style, whereas the existing heritage (the Machine Building, the entire Hanging Room) is retained, the facades left unchanged, and all the interior modern interventions are reversible, leaving the possibility of the building returning to its initial state in the future.

LANDSCAPING

The original entrance to 9/9bis is located near the mineworkers estate. It is marked by the classical cornices on the institutional facade of the Machine Building. Our proposal was to reverse the main entrance and to create a new access from the motorway, focusing attention on the derricks and the Métaphone®.

Before construction began, the refurbishment of the site began with the development of the esplanade between the Machine Building and derricks (listed Historical Monuments) and the registered complex (the administrative building and Hanging Room).

The esplanade is lined with infiltration ditches, planted with sedges on one side and forming grassy embankments with blues tone gutters on the other.

BT01

A small office complex has been introduced near the legacy buildings.

The Pithead complex includes the Machine Building and the derricks. The latter, which were earmarked for development as part of the site conversion, were in the end excluded from the project because of the risks of subsistence around the old pits, now filled in.

All the machines still in place have been kept. They had been maintained and restored by the Acccusto Secci association of former miners.

The decorative elements are clad in the same material. To avoid cluttering up the space with panels, we asked the graphic designer Gérard Plénacoste to inscribe all the texts on the walls: stencils or cutouts for the titles, printed posters glued directly to the walls for more detailed texts.

THE REGISTERED HANGING ROOM COMPLEX

This complex will be converted to house the studios of ILTV (the local television company), seminar rooms, the site administration, music and dance training and rehearsal rooms, recording studios.

They are made of light metal frames and can be dismantled in the future so that the buildings can be restored to their original state if desired. Work on the registered complex should begin in autumn 2013.

The Metaphone is a living machine, both concert hall and “urban musical instrument”, whose walls generate and diffuse sound, in harmony with the play of light. The concert hall and its annexes are contained within a volume of black concrete, itself wrapped in a steel structure covered by light skin made up of scales of different materials: clear and unpolished glass, Corten steel, wood. This scaly envelope extends outwards and opens above the esplanade, forming a great porch protecting the entrance and terrace. Between the concrete mass and the scaly skin, attached to a fine metallic structure, technical walkways provide access to the sound and lighting equipment for installation and maintenance. On the roof, the lattice of scales extends into a 600 m2 sheet of integrated photovoltaic cells. Under the porch, the red structure of the instrument control cabin emerges theatrically from the black façade. An overhanging stairway and terrace structure, made of Corten steel, completes the arrangement, providing another listening platform.

The Métaphone® is an exceptional space where musical forms can be invented that are commensurate with the architecture. The originality and power of the project will be maintained and reinforced by the musicians who, in their turn, will create pieces for the Métaphone®. For the public, it will be a “curiosity”. People will come to Oignies to see and hear it. It will act like a secular bell, marking the hours, midday or twilight. It will signal the beginning of a concert or the interval, become a peripheral sound space, though discreet so as not to disturb the neighbours ... It could also be used as an instrument in an orchestral composition, with the musicians playing under the porch.

Inside, the hall is modular, able to accommodate 500 people in “seated” format and 1000 in “seated/standing” format. The walls are lined with wool felt, forming a background from which the red mass of the balcony emerges. This structure connects with the bar, which opens onto the terrace. The red of the balcony extends into the spaces of the bar and control cabin, providing glimpses of the interior atmosphere from outside.

Sound insulation from the outside enhanced by a hanging Mégastil ceiling. Facade structure: panels fixed on hanging double steel plates measuring 10 to 15m x 1.5m. Awning structure: hanging glass roof and walls supported on 4 reformed and welded steel profiles (10m overhang). The facade consists of 712 panels: 311 on each of the eastern and western facades, 90 on the northern facade. These panels are made of Corten steel, larch ply, clear glass and opal glass. They are attached to the structure by 4 or 6 steel cleats, depending on their size.