This project helps redefine the city center of Chaville, a small municipality surrounded with large, beautiful forests not far from Paris. It is this forest landscape that gives the Cultural and Leisure Centre its character. As a tribute to the neighbouring forests, which are both a source of inspiration and an integral part of the world heritage, the new work becomes sculptural with these big stylized trees making up the façade. This lace-like woodwork skin stands out against a background of black perimetric concrete walls. Behind this unique and remarkable surrounding façade, the inhabitants will find a large concert hall, a café with live theatre, function and activity rooms, classrooms, a toy and game room, as well as rehearsal, percussion and recording studios for all kinds of musicians.This project, which aims to bring poetry to the heart of Chaville, is also a medium of ecological creativity and common sense, because it uses wood in a completely new way. The ornamental latticed work made of raw larch testifies to the work of artists, the carpenters who sculpture the wood, who assemble 57 15-meter-high units without joints or visible clamping devices. In the face of this exceptional performance, the inhabitants can't but become aware of the primitive wealth they enjoy: the forest. Thanks to this new awareness, they will come to rethink the process of building and use natural materials to be in harmony with nature. The Cultural Centre is much more than an inhabited wooden and a black concrete sculpture. It is also a place of light. The sun shines freely through every opening. It lights up the inner spaces through very large windows which offer very good views of the tree-lined streets, the surrounding forest landscape as well as the big central patio from which all the programs radiate.
