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Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Paris firm Moussafir Architectes have blanketed the roof of this concert hall in Tours, France, with a synthetic material that looks like a quilt.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Above: photograph is by Luc Boegly

Named Le Temps Machine, which translates as The Time Machine, the venue contains two auditoriums that burst up through its roof, one displaying a glowing digital clock.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Above: photograph is by Benoît Faure

The glazed facade and entrance are sheltered beneath a canopy of projecting eaves.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

The walls of the remaining elevations are exposed concrete, as are those in the corridors of the building.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

We've featured quite a few concert halls on Dezeen. You can see them all here.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Photography is by Jérôme Ricolleau, apart from where otherwise stated.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Here's some extra information from Moussafir Architectes:


‘Le Temps Machine’, Concert Venue, Joue-Les-Tours, France

The former Joué-lès-Tours youth centre was a blocky, opaque, inward-looking building that failed to interact with the surrounding public space and no longer met current standards and requirements. The architectural design for the new music facility responds to a three-fold objective: to open the building up to its surroundings, to improve the way the opaque block integrates with existing buildings, and emphasise the festive dimension of the facility by making a unique architectural statement.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Above: photograph is by Luc Boegly

We chose to situate the new building where the old one stood, and to reinterpret some of the latter’s salient features (such as its prow-shaped auditorium) while offering the space a radically new image by opening it up to its context.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

With its generously glazed street-side entrance, the building’s exterior features deep projecting eaves and a strongly cantilevered auditorium providing both an impression of lightness and a sense of hospitality vis-a-vis the public space and dwellings nearby.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

To improve its contextual integration, we have divided the structure into two parts functioning in different registers: a determinedly horizontal 2m50 tall concrete and glass base housing a fluid, open interior space, and a roof with the three main components of the design brief (the two performance areas and the resource centre) bursting through it like opaque excrescences.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

This duality is emphasised by the use of contrasting materials: hard on the inside (raw concrete, glass, stainless steel) and soft on the outside (membrane stretched over exterior insulation materials).

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

With its complex volumetrics and textured outer surface, the new building stands out like a beacon in the urban landscape.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

The contradictory image we were aiming at is one of a unique yet familiar object that is challenging and yet invites appropriation: a sculptural design that refers to nothing that already exists, but which users can easily engage with, both in functional and symbolic terms.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Client: TOUR(S) PLUS (Tours City Council)
Address: 49, rue des Martyrs, 37300 JOUE-LES-TOURS

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Above: photograph is by Benoît Faure

Brief: Concert facility to replace the existing youth centre, including a concert space for a standing audience of 650, a 150-seat cabaret-style space, a resources centre, and 3 rehearsal studios with service areas.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Materials: Colourwashed raw concrete, solvent- and plastics-free FPO roofing membrane by Sika Sarnafil, glazed stainless steel, Fibracoustic panels of wood fibre and rockwool, door/windowframes aluminium (exterior), steel and wood (interior).

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Budget: 5,300,000 €. ex tax.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

NSA: 1,753 sq m.

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Architects: Jacques Moussafir avec Nicolas Hugoo, Alexis Duquennoy, Narumi Kang, Sofie Reynaert, Jérôme Hervé and Virginie Prié

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Partner engineers: A&T (stage designers), Ayda (acoustic designers), Batiserf (structural engineers), LBE (mechanical engineers), Bureau Michel Forgue (quantity surveyor).

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes

Contractors: DV Construction (general contractor), AMG Féchoz (stage machinery), Bideau (stage electrics), VTI (wooden stage flooring), Edmond Petit (stage fabrics).

Le Temps Machine by Moussafir Architectes