Media Library, Social Center, THE AGORA - Djamel Kara

Metz, France

With an ambitious and unprecedented program in France, THE AGORA brings together a media library, a social center, and a digital space.

The transparencies make the different uses of the building visible from the street. A screen is fixed on the red cube of the broadcasting room, allowing an outdoor cinema activity.

Porthole-shaped openings accentuate the reference to trains from the outside and stage the movement of trains from inside, thus transforming it into a kinetic setting

From the reception hall, a rich and multifaceted program is developed: an associative café, consultation, and reading spaces, a dining room open to all with an educational gastronomic workshop.

In the red cube, a multipurpose room for expressions allows, in particular, thanks to complete stage equipment, the organization of shows, and public readings.

Upstairs, we find a sports activities room, reading and working areas around multimedia technologies, a Fab-Lab, and a plastic arts room. Finally, the reading area dedicated to adults extends outside with an experimental garden in the sky on the last level.

The structure of the buildings is mixed, concrete, and metal framework. The materials are wood in natural or bright red-stained shades, smooth, wavy, or braided stainless steel for the railings, and, very largely, full-height glass.

THE AGORA has obtained the High Environmental Quality Building certification under the CERTIVEA Tertiary Building label.