MÉCA

Centrally located between River Garonne and Saint-Jean train station, MÉCA, brings together three arts agencies for contemporary art, cinema, literature, audiovisuals, and performing arts. The building is conceived as a single loop of public institutions. A series of steps and ramps lead the public directly into the 1,100 m2 outdoor urban room at the core of MÉCA, creating a porous institution for visitors to roam freely between the Quai de Paludate street to the river promenade. Within MÉCA, visitors enjoy a 250-seat theatre, an 80-seat cinema, 7m-high exhibition spaces, production studios, storage facilities, a 90-seat auditorium, restaurant, café, and roof terrace.

The riverfront promenade along River Garonne lifts off from the ground, covering a shared lobby below. The theater and mediateques form the two pillars of the building that carry the skylit attic for the visual arts. The three institutions frame a central space an urban living room for city life. The urban room is at once a frame for artwork, a stage for performances, a screening room for media collections and an open room for the urban life of Bordeaux to engage with the arts. Giant windows overlooking the urban room offers views to the dance studio and on the opposite end, an inclined mirror reflects the lobby below. MÉCA’s urban room is considered as a blank canvas for the Bordelais to fill it with their ideas, their creativity, their culture, and to make it their own, ultimately cementing the UNESCOlisted city as the epicenter for culture.

The main structure is made of two cast in situ concrete towers supporting a steel bridge hovering above an urban public space welcoming the visitors and art installations, offering a seamless promenade along the River Garonne. MÉCA’s façade is composed almost entirely of 4,800 prefabricated concrete panels interspersed with windows of various sizes to control the amount of light entering inside and to create a sense of transparency. The façade tiles are pulled apart, expanding into windows that bring daylight and views to the spaces within. The concrete slabs, which weigh up to 1.6 tons, are sandblasted to expose its raw qualities and to texture the surface with the local sandstone of Bordeaux. Yellow granules for brightness and warmth radiate the building in the sun and integrates MÉCA as a familiar yet new vernacular sight to the city.