The design studio thesis was about the conversion of an old gasometer located in the Dunkerque port and it has been part of the a bigger redevelopment in 2010. Indeed the city’s council promoted the regeneration of the harbour and this had become one of the EUROPAN10 sites.

The project team decided to participate in the competition developing a general master plan that, according to the design statement, it could have been hosted a big cultural centre as well as the new university music and art centre. After the competition each team member has decided to develop one part of the master plan as final design studio thesis.

The project imagine to wrap the gasometer up with a glass curtain-wall. The huge glass box hosts all the requested activities such as test rooms, the main theatre, classrooms, the entrance hall, an exhibition path and a roof-top café. Each of these activities are contained in a stand-alone box. The set of these volumes have been placed in various altitudes within the glass box creating a complex space made of ramps, voids and double heights.

The main music hall has been designed as kinetic and flexible space in which movies, projections, play, concerts or conferences can be performed. This extreme flexibility is possible thanks to the hydraulic pistons system that is able to move the stands, so the room can assume a variety of different configurations according to the weekly theatre agenda.