Europe 40 Under 40 Awards Tell a friend
ARCHIVE 2016
40under40
Ilham LARAQUI - France
Ilham LARAQUI is a young architect, an entrepreneurial woman who created at 30 years old LARAQUI BRINGER ARCHITECTURE with Marc BRINGER architect, in 2010 in Paris. Since then, the french agency has been celebrating many prizes and recognitions as listed below:
2009 - Prize-winner among 466 participants at the International Competition “Building for Bouwkunde” - Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism, landscape, Design and Building Sciences of the TU-Delft (Netherlands) – “Green Housed Culture”.
2009 - Prize-winner of the European Competition of Architecture and Urbanism: EUROPAN 10 - Seilh / “Fields of Possibilities”. The competition gathered 2,429 architects aged less than 40 years.
2010 - Prize-winner of the session 2009-2010 Album of Young Architects and Urban Planners known as AJAP, delivered by the French Ministry of Culture. The competition gathered 242 agencies, owned by architects under 35 years.
2011 - Winner of 2 different public competitions in close suburb of Paris: Chaville and Saint-Ouen.
2013-2015 - Management and Delivery of both buildings: Saint-Ouen’s Social Clubs and Citizen's House and Chaville’s Cultural & Leisure Centre.
2015 - Prize winner of “PRO-BTP Awards” - ECL of Chaville.
Project Description
ECL – CHAVILLE’S CULTURAL AND LEISURE CENTRE
A sculptural building that integrates itself into a new city center by revealing the surrounding landscape, a source of inspiration turned towards Nature. A strategic project in terms of cultural and social impact.
In the context of the creation of the new Chaville City Center, we imagined the ECL as a sculptural work and drew inspiration from the omnipresence of the nearby forests - half of the public space being wooded. We dressed the project up with large, stylized trees, creating a lacy skin that envelops the reflective black concrete interior of the ECL. This original treatment sets the building apart, and makes it a catchy urban landmark, a point of reference in the town and region.
The cultural space is not just an inhabited sculpture, but also a place of light. The sun generously enters the colorful spaces with high ceilings. Very large bay windows offer great views on tree-lined streets and the surrounded wooded landscape, as well as onto a central patio, with plants, around which programs are organized. The patio is an additional room, a place of exchange and sharing onto which all main corridors open, and around which users gravitate.
The ECL, an attractive symbol of ambitious urban policy, welcomes the Valley's MJC (Community Arts Centre and Youth Club), a dynamic socio-cultural institution. It will develop and improve the cultural and associative activities offered. The users - members, facilitators, and amateur and professional artists - have nearly 20 interior spaces and 5 exterior spaces at their disposal.
