French architecture studio Dominique Coulon & Associates have added colour to their new building for the Conservatoire of Music, Dance and Dramatic Arts in Belfort, France by covering the outer walls with Jackson Pollock-inspired splatters of paint.
The 3,895sq m (41,900sq ft) building – which houses two auditoriums, a theatre, a large dance room, a media library, over 30 classrooms and several studios tailored to specific instruments – has been designed as an almost opaque mass of light grey concrete volumes of various sizes.
The building is located between a stretch of woodland, a built up urban district and a hillside featuring the famous Lion of Belfort – a sandstone sculpture built in 1879 by Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.
In order to create a striking addition to the landscape, the studio chose to cover the exposed concrete walls with dripped patterns of two-tone blue paint, using a technique made famous by Pollock, the American abstract expressionist painter.
“The surface of the mass has an unusual texture, hinting at plants or veins in the wall,” said the architects.
“The drips of paint lend depth and thickness to the skin of the building. The surfaces vibrate in the light, apparently in motion, and matter ceases to be static.”
In contrast, the building’s internal courtyard sees the colour scheme reversed, with dark walls splattered with light-coloured paint to create “the ultimate expression of density.”
The building, which opened at the end of 2015 to commemorate the French composer Henri Dutilleux, cost €6.3m (US$6.7m, £4.6m) to complete and received local government funding. French firm Batiserf Ingénierie were structural engineers on the project, and acoustic consultancy was provided by the Euro Sound Project.
