Metz, France
European 40 Under 40 laureate Djamel Kara of Ropa & Associés Architectes designed this project for the City of Metz that starts with an ambitious and unprecedented program in France: The AGORA, which brings together a media library, a social center, and a digital space.
Djamel Kara was recently awarded a 2020 European 40 Under 40® Award from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum.
For project, the transparencies make the different uses of the building visible from the street.
A screen is fixed on the red cube of the broadcasting room, allowing an outdoor cinema activity.
Porthole-shaped openings accentuate the reference to trains from the outside and stage the movement of trains from inside, thus transforming it into a kinetic setting.
From the reception hall, a rich and multifaceted program is developed: an associative café, consultation, and reading spaces, a dining room open to all with an educational gastronomic workshop.
In the red cube, a multipurpose room for expressions allows, in particular, thanks to complete stage equipment, the organization of shows, and public readings.
Upstairs, a sports activities room, reading and working areas surround multimedia technologies, a Fab-Lab, and a plastic arts room.
Finally, the reading area dedicated to adults extends outside with an experimental garden in the sky on the last level.
The structure of the buildings is mixed, concrete, and metal framework.
The materials are wood in natural or bright, red-stained shades, smooth, wavy, or braided stainless steel for the railings, and, very largely, full-height glass.
The AGORA has obtained the High Environmental Quality Building certification under the CERTIVEA Tertiary Building label.
The AGORA: Media Library and Social Center
Project: The AGORA: Media Library and Social Center
Architects: Djamel Kara, SAS Ropa & Associés Architectes
Client: City of Metz
