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The cultural and sports center Wangari Maathai, Paris
The cultural and sports center Wangari Maathai is located in one of the highest density area
of Paris, it does not host diversity – of activities, architectures, populations, uses – which could
define it as a urban and sustainable neighborhood. Compact, the project becomes landmark in
this dense neighborhood ; it saves ground, real resource of the area. By the transparency and
porosity of its urban hall, the centre invites, welcomes and links populations and uses.
Along its four faces, the project offers and stacks a range of materialities, more or less
transparent, in relation with the different activities. Generosity as a common denominator
of all spaces, to allow reinterpretation and refurbishment following evolutions of uses and
needs. It is a single volume, with slightly curved faces, expressing the superposition of distinct
functions in elevation, with strips surrounding the building.*
Bruther is an agency founded in 2007 in Paris by Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot. They
practice an architecture of resistance, free from all traces of mannerism, style, fashion and the
superfluous. Their projects are open infrastructures capable of responding to a multitude of
possible futures and a great malleability of uses. Bruther is part of a ‘new wave’ of practices
that contribute to a radical renewal of architectural culture in France. In 2018, they obtained
the « Equerre d’argent » price for the Residence for researchers in Paris XIV.
*Extract text description provided by Studio Bruther
THE CULTURAL AND SPORTS CENTER WANGARI MAATHAI
