The cultural and sports center Wangari Maathai
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 the architects.
