Construction of a Media Library and Redevelopment of a Music School

The media library and music school are nestled against an ochre cliff planted with trees that gives them a unique character. The aim was to insert a contemporary structure into one of Europe's most beautiful medieval towns, where masonry and yellow Dordogne stone dominate. The geometric distortions of the project's layout are based on the lines of force of the topography. We invited the rock into the media library by carving out a reading room, and the concrete of the project was colored in its honor. The media library was built on the ruins of a factory from which we chose to preserve a wall.

The town hall wanted to offer its residents a public facility whose influence would extend far beyond the town's boundaries. For our part, we wanted to propose a major, unique, and sustainable architectural project, while avoiding disrupting the historical identity of the town, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We therefore chose to integrate the cliff into the media library and to preserve the old music school, renovating it using traditional local techniques. Integrating the rock into the media library required an adaptive and multifaceted technical approach, sometimes based on doubling, distancing, or, conversely, on the appearance of the rock in the reading area itself. The building thus benefits from the inertia of this mineral mass, which keeps it cool. The new music school now allows musicians from the region to rehearse and train, and embodies the city's strong policy in favor of culture and youth.

The reinforced concrete structure favors large spans, which, in addition to offering unobstructed views, will allow future generations to use the space differently without having to carry out any work. The efficiency of this structure, which also acts as a facade, leads to savings in materials and therefore costs. A mineralizing agent has been applied to the architectural concrete, making it waterproof. The facade will not require special maintenance, as time will only add character to its surface. A simple high-pressure water cleaning every 30 years will be enough to refresh it. A policy of recycling and local sourcing has been adopted. Two materials were recovered on site and reused in the project: stone rubble, used to renovate the existing main facade of the media library, and pebbles, agglomerated to create a handmade matrix that was pressed onto the concrete sections of the facade to leave its mark. The concrete used on site was made from materials sourced from nearby quarries.