Lons le Saunier France, Architect Building Images, French Architecture Design Proposal

Lons le Saunier Médiathèque, Cinémas

French library / cinema project design by Du Besset-Lyon Architectes

post updated 6 September 2024

Design: Du Besset-Lyon Architectes

Location: eastern France, near to Switzerland

Mediatheque in Lons le Saunier will open to the public on November 28th, 2012.

photographs © Philippe Ruault

23 Nov 2012

Lons le Saunier – Médiathèque, Cinémas, France

Lons le Saunier Library & Cinema

Next to the mediathèque, three existing buildings – the church, the Hotel de Balay and the wall of the prison – formed an impressive and severe urban setting made up of simple lines, great mineral surfaces and imposing masses. Unfortunately, the relation that these three constructions maintain could not be experienced from the street. Obviously, a new building, a fourth element, was needed to open and liven up the urban structure.

The mediathèque plays that role, and it must assert its presence in regard of the stiff representations of Church and Justice.

photographs © Philippe Ruault

The new building has the courtesy to curve itself in order to spare a public place that opens on the street. An urban respiration is created which is welcome in a very dense built context.

Like its neighbours, the lines of the new building are simple, its matter is mineral (concrete) and its presence is stated without superfluous arrangements of volumes and materials.

It draws its strength and its strangeness owing to the fact that it maintains an active, yet critical, relationship with its neighbours. Thus, the curvature of its southern façade addresses a direct response to the large slope of the slate covered roof of the church; the curve of its plan constitutes a natural connection between the street, the new central place and the back of the church.

photographs © Philippe Ruault

If it is respectful of its environment, the new building is also keen to assert its unique presence. Its sensuality opposes the stiffness of the context. Its aesthetic is regulated by a combination of curved lines. By this process it appears an autonomous object. Placed in front of one of his frontages, one seizes the system that regulates it, understands that it applies to the unit and perceives the whole.

The architectural expression of the exterior is found in the interior. From the entrance, one perceives the entirety of interior volume.

The interior organization is of a great clearness: the various functions are distributed on three levels plus a basement for the movie theatres.

photographs © Philippe Ruault

Lons le Saunier Médiathèque & Cinémas – Building Information

Site: rue des Cordeliers à Lons-le-Saunier
Program: Library/cinémas
Surface: 3,500 m²SHON
Cost: 8 M€ ht
Client: Communauté de Communes du Bassin de Lons-le-Saunier
Engineers: KHEPHREN Ingénierie, ESPACE TEMPS, Jean-Claude DRAUART, Franck BOUTTE consultant
Completion: Nov 2012

4 Jul 2008

Lons le Saunier Médiathèque & Cinémas

Design: Du Besset-Lyon Architectes

Lons le Saunier Library & Cinema

The existing buildings: the church, the Hotel de Balay and the wall of the prison form an impressive urban setting made up of simple lines, great mineral surfaces and imposing masses. Unfortunately, the relation that these three constructions maintain cannot be experienced from the street.

Obviously, a fourth element is needed on the north side to complete the urban structure.

The missing element is the library/cinemas.

Site : rue des Cordeliers à Lons-le-Saunier
Program : Library/cinémas
Surface : 3500 m²SHON
Cost: 8 M€ ht

Client: Communauté de Communes du Bassin de Lons-le-Saunier
Engineers: KHEPHREN Ingénierie, ESPACE TEMPS, Jean-Claude DRAUART, Franck BOUTTE consultant