Cité de la Musique
Paris, France · 1995
Photo · Photo by Nicolas Borel
An interior precedent demonstrating how a curved indoor street can be animated by a monumental steel-and-glass skylight, casting dynamic shadows across colored plaster surfaces.
- What we like about this project
- The subtle blue tint of the plaster wall on the left, which intensifies the cool, daylight-filled quality of the atrium.
Materials
- plaster
- glass
- steel
- concrete
Visual identifiers
- curved-atrium
- glass-skylight
- indoor-street
- blue-plaster-wall
- steel-truss-canopy
Style tags
- deconstructivist
- poetic-modernism
- monumental
Visual tags
- monumental-scale
- daylit-atrium
- cultural-facility
- curving-walls
- graphic-shadows
- Geometry
- A sweeping, curved interior street or atrium defined by a tall, blue-tinted plaster wall on one side and a curved, white-plaster volume on the other, capped by an angled, glazed steel-truss skylight.
- Facade system
- Interior glazed curtain wall and sloped overhead skylight system supported by steel trusses.
- Structural guess
- Steel-truss roof structure supported by reinforced concrete walls and columns.
- Spatial scale
- Grand, multi-story public scale with wide steps and integrated seating areas.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight filtering through the overhead skylight, casting graphic, linear shadows of the steel trusses onto the curved plaster walls.
- Atmosphere
- Bright, airy, and dynamic, with a strong sense of movement guided by the curving walls and shifting daylight.
- Environmental context
- An expansive indoor public atrium or concourse within a cultural complex.
- Spatial experience
- The space functions as a monumental indoor street or public concourse, where the compression of the curved walls opens upward to a soaring, light-filled glass canopy.
- Composition rhythm
- The rhythmic repetition of the steel roof trusses contrasts with the smooth, sweeping curves of the plaster walls and the staggered, punched window openings.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century French deconstructivism / poetic modernism
- Program
- Music conservatory or cultural center public concourse
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- plaster, glass, steel, concrete
- Visual identifiers
- curved-atrium, glass-skylight, indoor-street, blue-plaster-wall, steel-truss-canopy
- Style tags
- deconstructivist, poetic-modernism, monumental
- Visual tags
- monumental-scale, daylit-atrium, cultural-facility, curving-walls, graphic-shadows
- Geometry
- A sweeping, curved interior street or atrium defined by a tall, blue-tinted plaster wall on one side and a curved, white-plaster volume on the other, capped by an angled, glazed steel-truss skylight.
- Facade system
- Interior glazed curtain wall and sloped overhead skylight system supported by steel trusses.
- Structural guess
- Steel-truss roof structure supported by reinforced concrete walls and columns.
- Spatial scale
- Grand, multi-story public scale with wide steps and integrated seating areas.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight filtering through the overhead skylight, casting graphic, linear shadows of the steel trusses onto the curved plaster walls.
- Atmosphere
- Bright, airy, and dynamic, with a strong sense of movement guided by the curving walls and shifting daylight.
- Environmental context
- An expansive indoor public atrium or concourse within a cultural complex.
- Spatial experience
- The space functions as a monumental indoor street or public concourse, where the compression of the curved walls opens upward to a soaring, light-filled glass canopy.
- Composition rhythm
- The rhythmic repetition of the steel roof trusses contrasts with the smooth, sweeping curves of the plaster walls and the staggered, punched window openings.
- Style reading
- Late 20th-century French deconstructivism / poetic modernism
- Program
- Music conservatory or cultural center public concourse
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture