The Comedie, more than a theater
The New Comédie is more than a theater, it is not only a place of theatrical performance, with its two halls, but also a place of creation, with its large construction workshops. It is those who makes the New Comédie a real centre of artistic creation, bringing together all the theater professions under one roof.
Project Name: Nouvelle Comédie de Genève Theater
Architects name: FRES architectes > Laurent Gravier + Sara Martin Camara
brutto area: 16 060m²
cost/m²: 4 050 CHF HT/sqm
volume: 103 106m3
cost/m3: 630 CHF HT/m3
plot area: 4160m²
global cost: 98 M CHF Tax incl.
The “show factory” character was decisive for the design of the project, which had to be both a hyper-functional equipment and at the same time a unique building with its own identity.
The project places the performance halls at the heart of the volume, with an articulation of the programs that generates a unique cross-section, thus giving the building its identity. Circulation spaces, public and private, are located on the façades surrounding the programs to which they give access.
Where classical theaters distinguish the stage tower as the central element of the building’s composition, the characteristic crenellated profile of the project expresses the multiplicity of activities taking place in the new theater.
The lobby space, generous and transparent, creates links between the inside and the outside, and expresses the theater’s opening to the city. The crossing foyer gives access to the two halls, and creates another link between the two public spaces that surround the building.
The architecture, discreet and neutral during the day, expresses the character of a place of creation and production. In the evening, a light staging transforms the building in a performance place, affirming its presence in the city, and inviting the public to the magic of the show.
The building accommodates two complementary halls. Each of them develops it’s own identity, both from an architectural and scenography point of view.
The greater hall is conceived in the continuity of the European theater, Italian style, with a pre-established front stage-hall relationship. The envelope is made of folded and faceted skin, like an origami, which acccommodates all the acoustic and lights devices specific to a theater hall.
The modular black-box type hall is dedicated to experimentation. An elementary and neutral volume, with a modular bleacher system, allow multiple configurations to be set up. The walls are covered with fiber-reinforced concrete slats, the patterns of which guarantees excellent acoustics.
The two halls are highly technical spaces from a scenography point of view. The objective was to integrate all the technical requirements into the architectural expression while creating a poetic space capable of welcoming the spectator by creating a break between everyday life and the magic of the show.
FRES ARCHITECTES
The work of the office focuses on the production of space in the broad sense: urbanism, public space, architecture, design … The office develops projects with different programs and scales, sharing the same approach. Each project is therefore a field of research, with a specific context and specific problematics in which generic themes reappear: density, urbanity, mixed-use, diversity, sustainability… The answer is nevertheless unique and specific for each project, with the aim of valuing the qualities of the site and taking advantage of peculiarities of a program.
The projects take the shape of architectural, urban and environmental strategies. Strategies that lay down rules, bases of the project, leaving many opportunities within the same concept. This approach allows the project to absorb the changes related to the process, while affirming its core principles. The project is developed in close collaboration with the client and project team, which allows to integrate all their constraints and turn them into potential; with this approach, the concept of sustainable development is integrated in the early design phases.
The produciton of the office is rooted in a social, cultural and constructive context in perpetual motion.
FRES ARCHITECTES was created in Paris in 2004 by Laurent Gravier and Sara Martin Camara, after receiving the First Prize for the Europan 7 competition on the site of Nanterre, in the outskirts of Paris. The agency gains in 2009 the international competition for the construction of the theater of the new comedy of Geneva and open in 2010 the second agency in Geneva.
In 2012, the office was nominated for the “Prix de la Première Oeuvre” (French award for the best first-completed work) for the construction of 23 social dwellings in Béthune (FR). This project has been distinguished and nominated for several national and international awards: distinguished for PRIX AMO 2013 (Architectes et Maîtres d’Ouvrage), shortlisted for Ugo Rivolta European Social Housing Award 2013, shortlisted for WAN Residential Award 2013 and First Prize for the Archi Design Club Awards 2013. In 2014, FRES ARCHITECTES won the international limited competition for the development of the hub station of Renens in Lausanne (CH). In 2016, the operation of 50 social housing rue Binet, in association with Kempe-Thill architects is nominated at the “Equerre d’argent” award. In september 2019, FRES is awarded the 2nd Prize in the international open competition for the construction of the National Concert Hall in Vlinius, Lithuania, out of 248 projects.
