Atelier Phileas - Animation Center in Paris, France

The complex is situated in the southern portion of the prestigious 16eme arrondissement of Paris, bordering the Seine. The entire block surrounding the project is dedicated to different sports and cultural activities.

The way that the building was oriented provides a complete and quite unique view on the river Seine. The opening towards that view came at a price, since it has also exposed the building to the noise and commotion of the dense traffic of the close-by Saint-Exupery wharf as well as the Parisian ring-road.

Designed to service the neighbouring area, the Animation Center is a multipurpose space dedicated to various activities, such as physical education, musical, visual arts, exhibition space and a theatre.

The building has been supplemented by outdoor activities, including an external bowling alley. Each element has its particular functional characteristics, they all cohabitate harmoniously with the others without bothering one another.

The designer believed that the Animation Center had to stand out and become highly discernable as a public building, but it also had to play a structuring role within its busy and agitated environment. It should be opened towards its neighbourhood, attracting its inhabitants towards it, and fulfilling its role as a place where people get together and exchange.

The team at atelier Phileas went for a rational organisation of the building, where each side of the project is resolved in response to the area it is fronting. This segregational approach intended to attenuate the strong constraints of the hectic context, with its very noisy, and dense motor vehicle traffic, while emphasizing the exceptional sights offered by the privileged location on the banks of the Seine.

“To see and to be seen are the two faces of the same scene. Each space is positioned in order to see the city without hearing it and plays with the transparencies and reflections which make urban environment an architectural material just as concrete, metal or glass.”

Overhanging a few meters from the ground the volume containing the changing rooms gets wrapped with a highly reflective stainless steel skin. The reflections on the building evolve to the rhythms of the movements on the surrounding streets, its intensity varying with the quality of daylight. This “mirror” effect, while dematerializing the volume, contributes to the dynamics of the building’s liveliness and contributes in defining its identity.

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