Riverfront centre will “invite art into the city and the city into the arts”

A design team led by BIG has won a competition to design a 12,000sq m cultural centre on the riverfront in Bordeaux.

The Maison de l’Economie Creative et de la Culture en Aquitaine (MECA) will be home to the FRACS contemporary art centre, performing arts organisation OARA and the ECLA centre for literature and movies.

BIG’s proposals arranges the three institutions around a public space which opens towards Bordeaux and the Garonne River.

Members of the public can pass directly through the centre or along a promenade which rises to form the roof of the buildings’ entrance lobbies and provides access to a rooftop terrace looking out over the city.

Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, said: “When a region or a city invests millions in a major new cultural institution - it often ends up benefiting only the informed few that already have an interest in the arts.

“Not only does the MÉCA spill its activities into the public realm and the urban room, but the public is also invited to walk around, through, above and below the new cultural gateway.

“By inviting the art into the city and the city into the arts, the MÉCA will provide opportunities for new hybrids of cultural and social life beyond the specific definitions of its constituent parts.”

The team, which also includes FREAKS freearchitects, dUCKS scéno, Khephren Ingénierie, VPEAS, ALTO Ingénierie, Vincent Hedont, PBNL, Mryk & Moriceau, and Ph.A, beat proposals from SANAA, W-Architectures and FLINT.