Painted in Light: This arts department of a university in a dreary Parisian suburb has been radically and imaginatively transformed by the use of light and colour - Brief Article

Architectural Review, The, Dec, 2001

Moussafir Architectes Associes

St Denis is both the birthplace of Gothic architecture and the traditional burial place of the French kings, and a rather horrid industrial town on the outskirts of the Parisian conurbation. Much of it was built after the Second World War in contractor-led forms of industrial construction. In one of the drear university buildings, Moussafir Architectes Associes were commissioned to redesign the arts department.

They fell to with a will, and have radically reorganized what had been a crudely functional set of cells into what they call 'a society of rooms' in which theatre, dance, music, cinema, photography and the plastic arts are taught and practised. The plan is altered from the original grid, with what often seems like wilful distortions (the main reason why some members of the jury felt that they could not give more than a commendation for this project).

None the less, we were all very impressed by a scheme which, because of the depth of the original floorplates, has to rely much on artificial light. Each group of rooms is identified by a colour, and the architects suggest that the windows are 'lenses emitting coloured lights ... gaping holes leading to impossible worlds'. They are indeed impossible, but wonderful, sometimes like Rothkos painted in light.

The architects decided that the original plan was not large enough, so some of the rooms spill out of confinement to be expressed as rusted steel boxes. Consequently, and at night in particular, the intense colours of the inside pour out; the dull dreary enclave of Saint Denis suddenly seems magical.

The only nagging question that remains is whether the young art students will be able to cope with such a powerful, sensual, almost erotic environment: will they be overwhelmed or inspired? Hopefully the latter. Only time will tell.