Cultural Hall Victor Jara Espace Culturel Victor Jara

Office / Name of Architects Bureau Etudes Weinand / Yves Weinand Office / Name of Architects LEscaut Architectures / Michal Bianchi, Florence Hoffmann, Olivier Bastin, Pierre Larauza, Franois Lichtl www.weinand.be www.escaut.org Colaboraters Arianit Shevelli (Structural engineering), Rmi Raskin (Acoustical), Domitienne Cuvelier (Art), SECA (Mechanical), Eloisa Astudillo (Graphic design), Belgian French Community (Promoter) City / Country Sognies, Belgium Placement Shortlisted Programme Cultural Edition 2011

A landscape rising from the ground The cultural hall Victor Jara is in the middle of the historical centre of Soignies, a city 50 km away from Brussels. The nearby blue stone quarries have shaped the region and its memory. Between the invisible presence of the Senne river at the outer limit of the site and the massive collegiate overshadowing it, the building covered with rough stone crust takes shape as a rocky topography. Theatre in the street Soignies has preserved a strong local flavour in spite of the proximity with the European capital. The city is strongly attached to its folkloric traditions, amongst them the carnival and other street festivals. The proposal goes beyond its initial ambition, which is the construction of a multipurpose performing arts hall by including in its scope the rich outdoor celebrations. The building contains, in its morphology, the two sides of the local cultural dynamic: institutional culture inside the building, and folkloric culture outside and on the building. By doing this, the project avoids the logic of the closed box and proposes a very urban interpretation of the concept of show. Public space as a pattern Laid on the Van Zeeland square, the building was designed as an extension of the public space that surrounds it: it penetrates in the interior by numerous entrances around the building. The hall footprint (1300 m on a plot of 2900 m) was limited to allow a new square on the East side, which appears as an outside foyer. It becomes part of the medieval tissue of streets, lanes and squares. The artist Domitienne Cuvelier invests the square with street games and landscape elements which seeds become chips used by passers-by and pupils of neighbouring schools. A small big hall The building body is made of prefabricated tailor-made concrete sections. Facing the collegiate, the hall gains height. Inside, it is covered with acoustic dyed as dark woodwork while glazed faades return the light of the foyers and illuminates its direct environment at nightfall. The surface of the stage stretches to half of the total surface, which makes possible large-scale dance and theatre shows. The telescopic seating (from 400 to 600) guarantees use flexibility according to the nature of the show. The highest gallery, which has the same visibility curve as the seating, invites you to dive into the stage space. Fluids have been measured from the uses of the building. A double flow system permits to ventilate the hall limiting heat losses while a second ventilation system only treats the upper air layers in case of overheating, due to the projectors. Underfloor heating permits to keep the temperature constant and to restrict the use of ventilation systems to the shows only. As a result of a public/private cooperation between the city Soignies, Dexia Bank and the Belgian French Community, the cultural polyvalent hall has the ambitions of the demanding level that the tool provides. This allows the city Soignies to imagine their cultural offer on a regional scale.

view from a South-East angle

Filip Dujardin

West faade

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External walk - East faade

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Hall with telescopic seating open

Filip Dujardin

Main foyer with office, ticket booth and cloakroom (ground floor)

Filip Dujardin

View from a South-East angle at nightfall

Filip Dujardin

Ground floor, scale:1/200

The cultural hall as a public space