La Méca, Cultural center near Saint-Jean train station, Bordeaux, France
La Méca is a cultural centre on the quai de Paludate in Bordeaux, built on the site of the former abattoirs. The 18,000 m² building, 120 metres long and 37 metres high, forms a vertical loop linking the old slaughterhouses to the Garonne embankments. Its sloping base, two asymmetrical legs and bridge-like entablature create a large arch, clad in 4,800 beige stone-coloured concrete panels. A central void called the "chambre urbaine" is crossed by ramps and steps.
The center opened in 2019 as a project designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to unite three separate regional cultural institutions. This consolidation brought together organizations focused on contemporary art, performing arts, and cinema-literature under a single building.
The building brings together three separate cultural institutions under one roof, each with its own dedicated space for contemporary art, theater, and cinema-literature activities. Visitors experience how these different artistic practices coexist within the same flowing architectural design.
The building stands on the quai de Paludate, on the former Bordeaux slaughterhouse site by the Garonne. The entrance is on the ground floor, where the Agora auditorium and the café-restaurant sit; the OARA occupies the ground, first and second floors, and a 850 m² terrace on the fifth floor looks over the city. The outdoor steps and ramps of the arch can be walked without entering.
A large mirror-periscope is installed in the ground-floor Agora, the 700 m² auditorium for conferences and performances, not in the café-restaurant. It reflects the outdoor "chambre urbaine" into the building, linking interior and exterior. The café instead holds Bjarke Ingels's ceramic table shaped like a cross.
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