UGC Paris 19 | Jean-Paul Viguier

Competition won in 2011 Developer: SEMAVIP Client: UGC Engineering firm: GEC Ingénierie HQE : SE&ME Acoustician : Peutz Surface area: 9,786 sq m Budget: €21,5 M + Tax Mandate: Design and supervision + interior design ans landscanping Number of theatres: 14 Located on the outskirts of Paris, the cinema complex is a key facility in the new Claude Bernard urban development zone, at the meeting point of major urban flows with the outer ring road to the north, Boulevard Macdonald to the south, and Saint-Denis canal to the east. The future footbridge, which will cross the ring road, will promote pedestrian footfall in particular, creating a real public thoroughfare opposite the complex. •The content structures the form The architecture proposes a layout of blocks arranged in a quincunx, like a magic lantern or a "film canister", where spectacle is to be found in the cinema and projected out into the neighbourhood, with the visitors themselves playing the role of the actors. All the screens in this new project are firmly in the digital era. •A communicating building The building's north/south orientation, leading out from both sides on to two major thoroughfares, offers the opportunity to use the facades as media to communicate with the immediate vicinity and beyond. Billboards, the same proportions as the building, will copy the profile of the theatres, emphasising the lines and block structure on the one hand, and providing a large display space on the other. The western facade, facing Emile Bollaert Park, will be finished with a fine metal netting offering another means of communicating with the outside world. A network of diodes embedded in the netting will form coloured texts.