Le Volcan, Cultural and performing arts center in Le Havre, France

Le Volcan is a cultural centre on Place Oscar Niemeyer in Le Havre, made of two white concrete buildings. The Grand Volcan, a curved paraboloid of hyperboloid section 22 metres high and about 160 metres around, holds a 1,200-seat theatre; the Petit Volcan, a truncated cone, now houses the municipal library. A cast of Niemeyer's hand serves as a fountain at the base of the Grand Volcan.

Le Havre's reconstruction after World War II was entrusted to Auguste Perret, who planned a cultural and commercial hub around Place Gambetta. In the late 1970s the communist mayor André Duroméa selected Oscar Niemeyer's design; the Brazilian architect, then exiled in France, built the complex between 1978 and 1982. It opened on 18 November 1982, and in 1990 director Alain Milianti renamed it Le Volcan.

The name Le Volcan was chosen in 1990 by the new director Alain Milianti, replacing Maison de la Culture. The first Maison de la Culture in France, created by André Malraux in 1961, was moved here from the Musée d'art moderne André-Malraux. Since 2015 the Petit Volcan has housed the city's main municipal library.

The complex is set in a square 120 metres on each side, sunk 3.70 metres below street level. Three pedestrian ramps lead down to the forum: two straight and one spiral, which needed a supporting pillar. The entrance is sheltered from the wind and the whole space is reserved for pedestrians.

The square around the two buildings is a 120-metre-sided square, about 12,000 m², and from above its layout traces a dove of peace. The whole complex was dug 3.70 metres into the ground, so the two white volumes seem to rise straight out of the paving.