The Astrada, Performance Hall, Marciac

architects: atelier d'architecture King Kong, Bordeaux

year: 2011

project description:

Officially opened in the spring of 2011, l’Astrada concert hall is home to the renown Marciac international jazz festival, without permanent quarters prior to its construction. The building slips effortlessly into the surrounding urban context in resonant echo with the town’s Medieval past as a fortified bastide. L’Astrada dips unrestrainedly into the latter’s architectural idiom, reworking it in contemporary vein, in deference to the past but refusing hollow pastiche. The authenticity oozing from the town’s low-lying houses with their unaffected, unadulterated walls is inspiration for the use of stamped or exposed-aggregate concrete, deliberately left untreated in the main surfacing. This concrete casing creates both forceful and gentle contrasts with the natural wood also used, its shades varying with the shifting atmospheric conditions, creating a rich dialogue between today and yesterday, redolent with unceasingly renewed sensations.

Photos © Arthur Péquin