Urban living room: MÉCA by BIG

The newly-opened 18,000-square-metre Maison de l'Économie Créative et de la Culture en Aquitaine in Bordeaux creates a locale for contemporary art, films and all kinds of performances in Bordeaux.  Designed by BIG and situated between the Garonne River and Saint-Jean train station, MÉCA brings together three regional art agencies – FRAC for contemporary art, ALCA for cinema, books and audiovisual media, and  OARA for performing arts – within a flowing loop.

A series of steps and ramps leads visitors directly into the exterior urban living room of MÉCA. A bronze sculpture set up at the entrance and depicting a half head of Hermes, the god of eloquence, by Benoît Maire, encourages reflection on contemporary art in the region. On special occasions, the 850-square-metre roof terrace can be transformed into an extension of the exhibition spaces.

The facade of MÉCA is made up of 4,800 pre-fabricated concrete panels punctuated with windows in different sizes to control the amount of light entering the building and create a feeling of transparency. The concrete panels are sand-blasted in a surface treatment that has resulted in a texture reminiscent of the sandstone used in Bordeaux.

BIG INSIGHT: Bjarke on MECA & PUBLIC SPACE from BIG on Vimeo.

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Collaborators: FREAKS freearchitects, Lafourcade-Rouquette Architectes, ALTO Ingénierie, Khephren Ingénierie, Hedont, dUCKS Scéno, Dr. Lüchinger+Meyer Bauingenieure, VPEAS, Ph.A Lumière, ABM Studio, Mryk & Moriceau, BIG Ideas

Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Jakob Sand, Finn Nørkjær, Andreas Klok Pedersen

Project Manager: Laurent de Carnière, Marie Lancon, Gabrielle Nadeau

Team: Alexander Codda, Alicia Marie Sarah Borhardt, Annette Birthe Jensen, Åsmund Skeie, Aya Fibert, Bartosz Kobylakiewicz, Bernhard Touzet, Brigitta Gulyás, David Tao, Edouard Champelle, Espen Vik, Greta Krenciute, Greta Tafel, Hyojin Lee, Ivan Genov, Jan Magasanik, Jeffrey Mark Mikolajewski, Karol Bogdan Borkowski, Katarzyna Swiderska, Kekoa Charlot, Lorenzo Boddi, Maria Teresa Fernandez Rojo, Melissa Andres, Michael Schønemann Jensen, Nicolas Millot, Ola Hariri, Ole Dau Mortensen, Pascale Julien, Paul-Antoine Lucas, Raphael Ciriani, Santiago Palacio Villa, Se Hyeon Kim, Sebastian Liszka, Seunghan Yeum, Snorre Emanuel Nash Jørgensen, Teresa Fernández, Thiago De Almeida, Thomas Jakobsen Randbøll, Yang Du, Zoltan David Kalaszi, Tore Banke, Yehezkiel Wiliardy