École Supérieure d'Art de Cambrai by Atelier 9.81

Set on a former industrial site away from the centre of Cambrai, the new École d'Art de Cambrai is the work of Atelier 9.81. The planning application was submitted last month, and completion is scheduled for 2013. Because of the site's change of use, its surroundings remain highly heterogeneous and loosely knit. The site retains traces of its past, which the architects have kept and incorporated into their scheme, such as the entrance gate and some of the existing buildings. Beyond the challenge of creating an art school, the project also has to mark the entrance to the campus.

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The architects have therefore conceived a scheme in motion, one that is not frozen in time and is thus adaptable. They have adopted a post-and-beam structure with insulating panels to form the envelope. The aim is to avoid anything that would impose a particular spatial organisation. The scheme also provides 10% of unassigned space on top of the areas required by the brief. The idea is to oversize the circulation spaces in order to create galleries visible from the street. These act as display windows, running on from the studios used by students and teachers.

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Clad in aluminium-lacquered steel sheets, the facades fit the school into its setting in a subtle and distinctive way, their appearance changing with the orientation and the viewpoint. The different volumes are linked by glazed corridors. One corner of the building, facing the public space, will carry a screen showing news from the school and its exhibitions. Attention has been paid to the lighting, which matters both in exhibiting works of art and in making them. On the south side, glass screens filter the light. On the north side, the studios are lit from above by rooflights formed by the staggered roofline. An earth-air heat exchanger and a ventilation system with heat recovery are part of the construction programme, and the school will be certified BBC (the French low-energy building standard).