La Seine Musicale
LA SEINE MUSICALE
Shigeru Ban Architects
ARCHITECTS
Shigeru Ban Architects
MANUFACTURERS
Hess Timber, Ewo Lighting, Hasslacher Norica Timber, Alpesa
TEXT BY
Patrick Devedjian
PHOTOGRAPHS
Boegly + Grazia photographers, Shigeru Ban Architects
AREA
36500 m²
YEAR
2017
LOCATION
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
CATEGORY
Concert House
The site was not selected by chance.It is an island in the middle of the Seine–the centre of the region–the beating heart of the Vallée de la Culture in Hauts- de-Seine. With La Seine Musicale, Seguin Island has become its beacon.
Firstly, the name: La Seine Musicale. It links music, an art that touches our souls and brings them together at each concert, to the river that shapes our region, and carries us well beyond it.
The name calls to mind both its local foundation and its international outreach. The name speaks to us all.
There is also the architecture, recognizable and remarkable, created by Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, who have admirably ful lled the wish of the Department and its partners to offer a place that is both ambitious and welcoming.
Last but not least, it is a cultural facility that is opening its doors:
a place for live performance, emotions, and leisure, which also provides space to talented artists in residence (Laurence Equilbey and Insula Orchestra, Gaël Darchen and La Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine, Philippe Jaroussky and his Académie Musicale).
A place for life, where the extraordinary meets the everyday: the auditorium, the modular main hall, the garden, the unen- closed boutiques, and the numerous venues for musicians including spaces for ensembles in residence, rehearsal studios and the like...
Whether novice, curious passer-by, artist, initiate, adult, child, enthusiast or professional, everyone can meet and share their emotions at La Seine Musicale.
In order to see the light of day, the La Seine Musicale project needed to bring together skill, commitment, and ambition.It is rstly thanks to the support of the City of Boulogne-Billancourt and its mayor, Pierre-Christophe Baguet.
La Seine Musicale is equally the object of a partnership contract that has united the Department des Hauts-de-Seine andTempo-Île Seguin since 2013.
Music, song, applause, pregnant pauses, children’s laughter... La Seine Musicale is ready to receive its audiences and to resonate with a thousand sounds.
