La Luciole

Alençon, France

Photo © Luc Boegly

Architects: Moussafir Architectes

Location: 171 route de Bretagne, 61000 Alençon, France
Year: 2008

Although it could only host an audience of 250, the original Luciole has carved itself a strong regional identity thanks to quality programming and the way this concert venue brought audiences closer to artists. The competition brief required that this friendly and intimate atmosphere were recreated in the new auditorium for 650 people, which was why we opted for enveloping, circular forms. Comprised of two tilted cylinders whose intersection forms an elliptical arc between the audience and the stage, the new Luciole acts as an urban beacon in counterpoint to the linear façade of the adjacent exhibition center – a response to the local council’s desire for a powerful signal marking the town’s western sector. Its circular roofs transcribe the venue’s ellipse-shaped logo on a monumental scale. The new concert facility is above all a non-referential design, a minimalist object emerging from the ground, a geyser linking earth and sky. By day, the building’s metal cladding in different shades of blue echoes the fleeing clouds in the Normandy sky. By night, the circular canvas stretched over the sloped auditorium roof can serve as a projection screen for images generated by the musical pulse coming from inside the Luciole.