The soul of the Moulin Rouge | giuseppe vultaggio

The intervention on a building with a high symbolic value, as the Moulin Rouge in Paris, means to exalt its essence, and not necessarily to safeguard its existing shape. What has to be preserved is its soul, and not its physiognomy, its expressive power and not its appearance, its innovative and desecrating power, in order to remain a lab of artistic experimentation and a centre of attraction for the artists coming from all over the world.
The soul of the Theatre, which characterized all the XX cent., lies in the shattering force of its propeller, from its vertical movement comes an energetic stream which pours itself from Paris into the world, a lighthouse in the night for the artists, and a fatal attraction for anybody. Its movement connected with the glare of the lights transforms itself in a scorching vortex, a magic sphere which continues to charm.

This luminous vortex is its soul, and will be the generative act of the new Moulin Rouge. The new building comes out from the vortex, which moulds and twists the surfaces, to mark it out in all its elements. Not only a lighthouse, but a vertical building which englobes its soul in itself: the movement, the light, a magic sphere in an everlasting movement which will continue to charm! The building is thought as a regular shaped box which is moulded by the movement, the main façade tangles up around the vortex, to be broken down in four concentric membranes, which free themselves from the centre in all directions.
The new Moulin Rouge will present itself as a red rose.

In the middle of the composition, there is the most representative space, where the luminous spring and the propeller are; this place will be always visible, and in addition to a small museum, where all the biggest artists who made the history of the theatre will be remembered, there will be a space with the cafeteria and the restaurant. On the ground floor, under the big curtain, there will be the auditorium, the museum and all the rooms for artistic performances and for the reception of the large audience. The ground floor is planned as a big covered square, constantly enjoyable to the visitors. On the first underground floor, semi-public spaces will be placed: Cafeteria, Bookstore, Souvenir store. On the second underground floor there will be private rooms, not available to the audience: Administration, Training rooms, Gymnasium and Dressing rooms.
The underground environments are imagined as cryptic labyrinth-shaped spaces to underline the concept of the uninterrupted discover and of the surprise, even in the more properly functional environments.

The big propeller, in the middle of the composition, a part from being the base of the generative process of the building, is the only source of energy; all the building will be supplied with the energy produced by its movement. The new Moulin is a total self-sufficient building, realised according to the principles of the environmental sustainability.