The proposal for the New Building for the Nantes’ Conservatory & the Pole of Higher Learning Performing Arts by RAUM + l’Escaut proposes to open the different practices to the city. Dance studios and music classrooms create a perception of artistic practices from the outside and make it readable within this new cultural center of the Nantes Island. Beyond the shared nature of the equipment, transdisciplinary practices will be offered by a set of situations that offer the linking of different disciplines and will thus create a direct link between the building and operation of contemporary pedagogies relating to higher education. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Connecting the dancer’s on the horizon
Every dance hall offers wide openings to the outside (which can be hidden by micro-perforated exterior shutters and interior curtains). Most of these openings have a special relationship to the Nantes Island by the unique views they propose: Garden of five senses, perspective on the International Secondary School, west view over the multipurpose hall, east view over the existing conservatory auditorium and north view over the International Secondary School. Beyond the supply of light and natural ventilation, these large frames offer a distant view of the city, thus allowing the dancers to command a view over the landscape of the island, on the skyline.
Reflecting the practice abroad
In ground gateway, on the access level of the conservatory, some music rooms are arranged in a way that they fit in the continuity of public spaces: - the collective practice room, adjoining the home of students, is directly accessible from the outside in order to simplify access with bulky instruments and percussions. - the rehearsal rooms / multimedia rooms, with double height space on the thermal buffer entrance.
A transdisciplinary vertical distribution
To use the remaining space between the ceiling heights of the dance halls (5 meters high) and the changing rooms (2,5 meters high), and in search of a compacity, the teaching of music takes place on two different levels. This vertical distribution is leveraging the willingness to work together for three major situations: - the interaction of pupils and students between levels of practice clearly divided - the physical connection levels at dance halls and music by a double height of horizontal circulation - the visual connection between the music rooms and dance halls with fixed acoustic glazing
The seventh studio: a space of transdisciplinary practices
The thermal buffer space on the first floor (unheated), real bioclimatic passive process, is used as an additional space in the continuity of the outer court. This seventh studio can be used as a temporary extension of the students’ home, reception room or group practices room, and is the place of transdisciplinarity, with the ability to become performance space or informal rehearsal space. Heat gain and energy will take place in the continuity of use qualities that it will propose: a friendly space in direct relation with the cultural center of the Nantes Island.
