Aix en Provence Conservatory of Music
Aix en Provence Conservatory of Music
Kengo Kuma & Associates
ARCHITECTS
Kengo Kuma & Associates
MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL
Etb Antonelli
CONSTRUCTION TEAM
Mathieu Faliu, Miruna Constantinescu
FIRE PROTECTION
Vulcaneo
SCENOGRAPHY
Changement À Vue
QUANTITY SURVEY
Jc Campion
STRUCTURE
Cer3i
ACOUSTICS
Peutz & Associes
MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
Etb AntonelliEtb Antonelli
CLIENT
Aix En Provence City Council
FAÇADE ENGINEERING
Tess
SUSTAINABILITY
Penicaud
DESIGN TEAM
Kengo Kuma, Diego Lopez Arauetes, Miruna Constantinescu, Natalia Sanz, Elise Fauquenbergue, Miguel Orellana, Junki Wakuda, Tristan Zelic, Magnus Casselbrant, Ioanna Angelidou, Yuki Ito, Emilie Bret, Majid Katir, Roman Martin, Dennis Cheung, Chao Chen
TOTAL FLOOR AREA
7 395 Sqm
AREA
1796 M²
SITE AREA
3 366 Sqm
YEAR
2013
LOCATION
Aix-en-provence, France
CATEGORY
Concert House, Music Venue
Text description provided by architect.
The project is a complex of the music conservatory, its concert hall and various other facilities.
There is a big difference in elevation within the site, and its neighboring land is also diverse. To solve such complexity, we chose aluminum as a single material for each façade, to be folded in part according to the face.
By adding the work of “folding” to the thin aluminum panel, each façade is given subtle shading. The main element of the façade here, therefore, is light and shadow, instead of the aluminum.
We were inspired for this idea by Paul Cézanne, the great artist from this region, and Japanese art of Origami.
Folding also became useful in protecting the opening from the sunlight, and controlling the range of view from the opening. We also received an interesting remark that this façade evokes a musical score, the protagonist of conservatory.
Folding is also applied to the concert hall. An asymmetrical interior was generated as its result, and helped to make a resonance with colorful, free-spirited music by Darius Milhaud, again a composer of Aix-en-Provence whose name is crowned on the conservatory.
