Around the Pavillon Noir

From the latest realizations of the biggest names in contemporary international architecture, all the way back to Fernand Pouillon's early efforts, this tour presents almost a century of architectural forms in the span of a few metres. This stroll will lead you through the Sextius Zone d’Aménagement Concerté (joint development area), one of Europe's most important urban projects of the last 20 years, then down to the end of the Cours Mirabeau.



Autour du pavillon Noir Pavillon noir Conservatoire régional de musique Grand théatre de Provence Annexe des archives départementales Logements Poste principale Palais Victor Hugo
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Centre Chorégraphique national

Le Pavillon Noir, a National Choreographic Center

This powerful architectural gesture complies to a constricted, narrow space, in itself a tour de force. Le Pavillon Noir is a building harnessed by a black concrete frame: encircled, striated, scarred: a radical edifice with insides that show through the skin. It opposes its own emaciated brutality to its ersatz-neoclassical surroundings favoured by the local authorities and reveals the entrails of a solitary cultural organization, providing glimpses into the buildings essential function: the work of the Compagnie Preljocaj's dancers in action. Their bodies materialize outside of the usually-hidden spaces, and, by being displayed to the city, allow Aix into the uncertainty of a moment of creation. Displaying a constellation of A-words on its facades (like Angelin, Aix, but also anarchy) Le Pavillon Noir "concrete-ly" tells a story of creation, that of a harsh and artisanal handiwork, just like dance itself. "It is a building of bricklayers, formworkers, metallurgists, carpenters, woodworkers - tradespeople. "I owe them everything, and to them alone," explains architect Rudy Ricciotti. But, as in Goethe's Faust, any creation that attacks the Divine is cursed: environmentalists were quick to criticize this device, which requires year-round air conditioning. But such is life - and there is much life within these walls. Within a Romano-Provençal environment where the song of ceramic cicadas fills the air, this pirate of a building possesses a devilish beauty.
Architect :
Rudy Ricciotti - Raphaelle Segond
Year : 2006
Type : theatre
Adress :
530 avenue Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Aix en Provence
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