The FORUM

Located in Saint-Louis (Alsace, France) in the “Three Borders” region and in the inner suburb of Basel, the “Forum” dedicated to replace the old “Palais des fêtes” of the town, is a cultural facility designed to host associative, sporting and cultural events.

The land, vast enough, is located close to the city center of Saint-Louis in an area mixing different scales and uses: it remains a residential area mainly made up of low height houses mingled with some characterless large-sized collective buildings, but it also includes offices and workshops for small companies, as well as a kindergarten and a primary school.

The project has been designed to fi t between these different built scales, in the smoothest possible way, by trying to minimize the breaks.

The program also involves strong contrasts between reception/offi ces/lockers spaces which required small-sized volumes, and the Festival Hall and the Great Hall, the two main spaces of the project which are requiring substantially greater volumes. Thus, between the relatively heterogeneous nature of the site and the one as well heterogeneous of the program elements, it was essential to work on a play with progressive volumes that could interconnect with each other while displaying the two key programs.

The project is then made of several distinct volumes, linked up to one another in a way the smaller volumes are placed at the edge of the individual houses, and the more imposing ones placed at the center. At the end there are 13 volumes connected to each other gathered at the center of the site, like the pieces of one single puzzle in this work of compactness and articulation with the environment.

They all fit in a unique writing because they are all covered with the same principles of forms, materials and openings. The roof of each volume is then systematically made of two slopes, inspired by the design of the roofs you can observe in the surroundings, alternating the orientation of the folded faces sometimes North-South, sometimes South-West, in order to capture a light each time different. The expanded metal (©Métal Déployé), used as a cladding on all the facades, also contributes to this unity, and gives the project its originality.

The project thus plays constantly with a double scale: One of fractioning that links the Forum with its urban context, and one of homogeneity that gives the building a strong and iconic design.

A MODULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR A MULTI-LIFE PLACE 
The building is fortunate to be located on a widespread site, which enables a flat installation and a maximization of functionality and fl exibility: all the functions communicate in a fluent way, without vertical breaks.

Several sub-spaces are created within the project: the Festival Hall situated on the North, the Great multifunctional Hall situated on the South, the public entrance halls on the West, the
schoolchildren entrance hall on the East, and the storage rooms on the Northeast.

The main issue of the project was to ensure that those spaces had the possibility to communicate in a more or less direct way according to the program of the moment. Designed like a puzzle, each space fits into the continuity of the next one, allowing a fluid circulation and rapid fl ow between the functions, where no corridor or galleries are needed. The flexibility was a fundamental issue of the project, each space is expressing by analyzing the flexibility allocated to it.

The 1870 sqm wide and 13 meters high Great Hall, hosts various functions: first it is dedicated to sport practice, namely basketball, handball, mini-handball, badminton, judo, and gymnastics, as
much for the schoolchildren than for sportive competitions, sometimes on a national level for some of those disciplines (especially badminton). The Great Hall can also host concerts and shows, with a gauge of maximum 2400 standing people, or about 1000 seating on a mobile bleacher provided for the purpose. Lastly, it can also host exhibitions or/and fairs. It can be intersected in different ways thanks to a play of retractable sliding partitions, allowing for instance the organization of an exhibition while a sport practice is taking place for the schoolchildren.

The Festival Hall covers an area of 872 sqm, and is also dedicated to host shows, associative events, weddings, or even fairs and exhibitions. Right next to it is a kitchen which allows the
organization of banquets of 600 persons maximum. That gauge can rise to 900 persons in case of a big event or a ball.

The Festival Hall can be opened directly on the Great Hall thanks to their connection, which is required when fairs and big events like the Book Fair are taking place and that the use of the whole
building is necessary.

The modularity is also included for the accompanying functions: the long lobby on the east is leading to the two big areas, at the same time or not if the activities require a separation for a total
operational independence.

All the material is shared in storage rooms situated in northeast (450 sqm): during big events, those storages will be specifically adapted with a direct access from the Acacias street, and will
be directly connected to the Festival Hall in the west, and to the Great Multifunctional hall in the south.

THE INDOOR DESIGN: A JOYFUL PALETTE WITH RESISTANT MATERIALS

We looked for extending the outdoor ambiances into the indoor spaces: As they are walking along the building, the visitors discover the coppered-metal facades, and at the moment they enter the
welcoming hall, they fi nd the long bar covered with the same large expanded metal panels. The length of this bar, more than 14 meters, gives it a central role, welcoming and festive: it takes
up the space, in a certain way forces the detour, even incites to stop and share a friendly time over a drink.

Above the bar itself, a long chandelier follows its contours and kind of shelters the visitors under a warm light. The hall seems at once fl ooded by this bar, but also by the reflects the chandelier is spreading into the space: its envelope made of expanded metal creates a filter that cuts the chandelier inner light and reflects it to the hall walls, grounds, and ceilings. We wanted our visitors to be impressed, as soon as they entered the building, immersed in a unique and colorful atmosphere.

To highlight this bar and its chandelier in the middle of the lobby, the different walls are soberly tinted of a soft grey, the ideal medium to this work with refl ects we sought for. All through their promenade into the building, the visitors will fi nd this colored palette again, regularly mixing beautiful bright oranges to greys made to enhance them. From time to time, those oranges and greys will be combined to blacks, especially in the two big rooms where a subdued light is needed during the day, whereas the darkest possible medium will be needed at night, to accompany shows and concerts.

The signage always follows this register, with a graphic work both inspired by this color palette and by the natural pattern of the expanded metal, made of little angular folds we developed in a range of multiple little dynamic lines accompanying the texts, as so many little arrows and braces. The project’s indoor materials are simple but rustic and strong: large fi bracoustic panels on the
walls for the sound absorption, orange sports fl ooring in the Great Hall, beautiful bamboo parquet floor in the Festival Hall, some nice Tom Dixon’s coppered lights, and the last but not least Vitra furniture (whose headquarters are located at less than 20 kilometers of Saint-Louis) with a beautiful set of Eames stackable chairs, which allow to host all the banquets and associative events.