Discovering the architecture of Dominique Coulon I have just come back from Strasbourg. I was invited to go there by ENSAS, the national school of architecture in Strasbourg, to give a talk about my work on 19 February 2013. The lecture theatre was packed. A number of people were even sitting on the floor, while others crowded the corridors. In Spanish we would say that the room was full to bursting. Right from the start, I was excited that there was so much interest, and it seemed that what I said and the arguments I put forward – in French – touched them, judging by the enthusiastic applause my talk received. What surprised and gratified me most during my trip, however, was the discovery of a top-class architect, Dominique Coulon, who creates magnificent architecture. He also teaches at ENSAS, and he had been behind my invitation – as he had been in 1992, twenty years previously! That young French architect just starting out on his career has since become Strasbourg’s best architect. His work is highly personal, extremely precise, using colours with an immense spatial quality. There is also an evident control of space, through very precise geometry, with the full strength of colour qualifying these spaces. He works with well-controlled space and hits the spot with perfectly dosed colour, like Barragan at his best or Le Corbusier at his most free. I know from experience that colour is not easy to use – Dominique Coulon dominates it in masterly fashion. All his work already forms a corpus backed by really top quality. Right from the start, all his work has aimed at spatial subjects contained in well-established plans which have developed gradually with greater freedom in terms of both shape and the handling of colour. Thus we are able to see even in one of his early works, the ‘Louis Pasteur’ secondary school in Strasbourg, a number of these recurrent subjects which reappear constantly. The nursery school in Marmoutier is very attractive. As is the national drama centre in Montreuil. While the “pierced box” of the Conservatoire in Maizières-lès-Metz has daringly perforated walls, expressing an advanced level of freedom, it has to be admitted that the interior spaces he creates are extremely beautiful. The old people’s home in Mattaincourt, because of its function, is more enclosed, very horizontal, and extremely serene. And in the media library in Anzin he resists the temptation of colour and deploys a more enclosed architecture in white concrete. In the more recent ‘Joséphine Baker’ group of schools in La Courneuve, his project is designed like a fruit, with a white, neutral skin on the outside, surrounding a bright red centre. A specific idea, developed extremely harmoniously. Allow me to tell you something about his latest work, a nursery school right in the heart of Strasbourg. It is still under construction, but I had the good fortune to be able to visit it personally, with him. You might wonder how a restructuring renovation work could ever be masterly, yet that is what he is achieving here. Dominique Coulon has worked like a skilled surgeon, cutting, stitching, removing and adding in all the right places, all with the utmost precision. He has enlarged the windows on either side like huge eyes, creating new perspectives which enhance the whole. He has lowered the sills of all the classroom windows so that the children can see what is going on outside. He has cut through the roof so that light floods in through new skylights. He has also cut through the walls wherever he felt they needed it. He has created transparency in the public areas – the eating area, for instance, is wide open to two roads opposite. I must stress that he has worked like a surgeon, piercing and stitching an elderly body to produce a new body which has been revitalised. All this has been decorated judiciously with colour: Coulon’s favourite colour, and mine – red. A vibrant colour, capable of brightening space, particularly in conjunction with his yellows and pinks. The client, the teachers and the children are all pleased, as part of the work has been carried out with them, inside. It is work of top-quality craftsmanship. On the outside, the facades have been renovated very simply. They are more open and more crystallised, tempered by vertical sun-screens in shiny stainless steel which, in addition to providing protection from strong sunlight, will produce some incredible effects. Of all the spaces, some are particularly successful. On the ground floor, to define the space occupied by the hall, Dominique Coulon allows himself a great deal of freedom, although it is extremely well-controlled, by playing with curved walls and ceilings, like Le Corbusier at his best. The contrast between the four-square rectangular shape of the classrooms and the use of curves in this public ground-floor area is a great success. What is more, he does without colour and plays exclusively with natural finishes and white, so that these curved shapes are visible from the street. The result is magnificent. On the inside there is a room for the youngest children in which it is not only the walls and ceiling that are curved – the floor is also curved, and soft. Light filters through the skylights in the roof, scattering reflections, and through the wall through a number of chinks in a random pattern; it is tinted pink by the reflections, in clear contrast with a few whitish grey areas, creating an almost surrealistic space where the children will have no trouble dreaming. This work by Dominique Coulon is truly a masterpiece. If I were a child, I would love to go to that school. Thus my meeting with Dominique Coulon has been the discovery of a real master. His personal attitude is one of great simplicity and very intense work. With his coherent, mature and magnificent works he has produced works of architecture that are capable of standing the test of time, and capable of making the people living in them happy. Dominique Coulon – a maestro!
© Dominique Coulon & associés . Published on December 05, 2013.
© Dominique Coulon & associés . Published on December 05, 2013.
© Dominique Coulon & associés . Published on December 05, 2013.
© Dominique Coulon & associés . Published on December 05, 2013.