Regional Music and Dance Conservatory

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

REGIONAL MUSIC AND DANCE CONSERVATORY

Studio 1984 + Boris Bouchet Architectes

ARCHITECTS
Boris Bouchet Architectes, Studio 1984

YEAR
2020

COUNTRY
Le Pradet, France

CATEGORY
Cultural Architecture, Educational Architecture

AREA
953 m²

PHOTOGRAPHS
Benoit Alazard

ACOUSTIC
Gamba Acoustique

MANUFACTURERS
Carrières de Provence

ENGINEERING
Calder Ingénierie

The Conservatory of Music is at the heart of a much broader public project.It serves as a catalyst for a refined urban lifestyle, breathing new life into the entire public pedestrian space.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

The use of massive stone in the construction is a striking environmental performance.With little transformation at a nearby source, it makes for a low carbon footprint.

The site proposed by the Pradet City Council is the plot of the former Jean Jaures school, comfortably nested in the historic downtown neighbourhood.

This policy choice offers an alternative to the automobile-dominated lifestyle that would have otherwise dictated a location at the entrance of the city with abundant parking.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

The challenge of installing equipment of this scale within the residential fabric of the heart of a seaside village is a major consideration in this project.

How then is architecture capable of bearing the cultural and social graft between the users hailing from the entire French metropolitan territory and the inhabitants concerned about the transformation of their environment?

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

The first choice is the superposition of the programme over 3 levels. Space thus freed makes it possible to keep the big trees and create a central void, conceived as a third amenity between the media centre and the conservatory, nurturing a breath of fresh air in the dense and private fabric of the neighbourhood.

In its relationship with the site, the conservatory offers the first response to this contradictory demand that consists of creating a facility that is both a bold symbol of public renewal and a discrete element of the historic residential fabric.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

The project is based on a double reading. From the hillsides or the city centre, it is perceived as an architecture that has been present for centuries.Its indented volume, sparsely pierced, associates it at the domestic scale with the large houses nearby, built with the same materials, clear mineral facades, and tiled roofs.

Meanwhile, in the tenuous space in the courtyard, the discovery of the unusual scale of the borings and the double-height front portico evoke a more monumental image of the facility and affirm its public nature.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

The conservatory is built in Estaillade stone cut in the quarries of Oppède located just a few kilometres from Pradet. This technical choice was first guided by discretion in a historic neighbourhood.

The conservatory faces the Church of Saint-Raymond Nonnat, which was also built during the 19th century in the same stone.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

It is this prolific production and proximity with the operators working with massive stone in the quarries in Provence that explain the undying economic relevance of stone.

This is a symbolic and technical response to the needs for acoustic isolation arising from the conservatory activities with regard to its neighbours.

Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
© Benoit Alazard

Of course, it is possible to create acoustic protections with synthetic materials or concrete, but there is something vital about enveloping the music in 35 cm of solid stones.The general form of the butterfly plan comprising non-orthogonal walls also determines the acoustic quality of the music rooms.


Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Execution plan 01
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Execution plan 02


Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Section 01
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Section 02
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Section 03
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Plan - Ground floor
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Plan - 1st floor
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Plan - 2nd floor


Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Axonometry
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Master plan


Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Window detail
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Axonometry section


Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Axonometry section 01
Regional Music and Dance Conservatory
Axonometry section 02