The Town Hall of Quedillac wanted to build a Cultural Center for the city. The main objective was to battle against capsularisation by providing a place where a diversity of publics could mix and gather around a common ground.

The new building includes a multimedia library, hall, coffee area, a youth space for teenagers and a childcare section for small children.

The site chosen by the municipality was in the city center, next to the Town Hall. The challenge was to create a place where usual and new activities find synergy.

The idea then was to create a hybrid space where the everyday and the exceptional can co-exist and interact to produce something more than the sum of its parts.

To showcase the internal activities to the passer-by, the program is organized towards the skin of the building while the service areas stand in the inner core each characterized through different colors.

The more public activities are placed facing the street life (hall-coffee, youth center, and multimedia library) and the more intimate programs face the hidden garden-terrace at the back of the site (childcare section).

The building was placed in the middle of the site to produce a diversity of exterior spaces, each one with its own character.

The parking and square provides event spaces, the large pathway gives an independent exterior area to the teenagers, the contemplative garden up-north constitutes the multimedia library background. 

A colorful terrace space and garden is placed at the back of the building, where children can play safely and readers can get out and lounge at the afternoon sun light.

The pinch roof typology is read as a mass detached from the ground with a transparent plinth, a “flying roof” sheltering the public sphere.

A map, from a picture taken from a site visit, was translated to create a pixel kind of pattern which was then applied to the roof zinc shingles.