A communal space as a ‘third place’
The once-empty urban space is now being filled with footsteps. This transformation began with the opening of the La Boussole Centre for Culture and Tourism in 2023. In Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France, there was a former administrative facility site created during the city’s post-war reconstruction period that later fell out of use. The police station, high court, and chamber of commerce buildings stood shoulder to shoulder, arranged in sequence around a central garden, yet remained physically separate from one another. Through this project, the site has been reorganized into a unified complex—woven together around an expansive shared public space at its core.
The decision to pursue this direction stemmed from La Boussole’s ambition to go beyond a conventional hub for learning and leisure, positioning itself as a ‘third place.’ In its new spatial framework, new cultural events are held, encouraging social encounters and exchange. A new exhibition room was placed along the street-facing elevation, while the former courtyard was enclosed beneath a glass roof merging red and yellow tones, reinforcing the site’s spatial centrality. An openwork concrete lattice structure channels daylight into the interior as geometric planes of flat, bold color. A suspended, mirror-finished cubic volume was hung above the atrium, visually reinforcing the intended sense of spatial tension. The 300 m² solar atrium was conceived as a 7-meter-high double-height space, where work and relaxation areas interlock fluidly, creating a spatial continuum. This central void functions as a connective core that visually links the primary program areas. Public facilities—including the exhibition room, video game zones, and library commons—are distributed across the ground and first floors, while storerooms occupy the basement and administrative offices the second floor.
A further symbolic hallmark of the project is a pair of terraces, saturated in vibrant red, stacked across two levels. These terraces are arranged in staggered rows along the reading space, amplifying visual and spatial convergence toward the center of social gravity, drawing collective attention to this socially charged core.
By creating storerooms beneath the former courtyard, the courtyard floor level was raised by one meter, aligning it with the adjacent existing buildings to achieve a same-level connection. Additionally, the former southern parking lot was converted into a new reading garden. The building’s elevations were recomposed in a pared-down and orderly manner to highlight the architectural character established during Saint-Dié-des-Vosges’ reconstruction period. With an elegantly restrained architectural presence, the new functions and extensions settle naturally within the local urban and cultural context. These architectural interventions break from the monotony of the original structures, forming new architectural statements that embody La Boussole’s renewed identity. Each new insertion operates as a spatial marker crafted in a distinct architectural language.
The alternation of open and enclosed elevations was chosen to generate an unpredictable and exploratory spatial experience. Accordingly, the gently sloping western forecourt and garden lead into a coiling movement of circulation tracing the building’s western elevation. Along this path, visitors are offered a glimpse into the interior gallery, before being guided toward the main reception desk. From there, sunlight flooding into the central atrium captures the gaze, while to the right, the transparency of the southern elevation opens fully toward the adjacent reading garden.
Project: Centre for Culture and Tourism / Location: 2 place Jules Ferry, 88100 Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France / Architect: Dominique Coulon & associés (Dominique Coulon) / Project supervision: Steve Letho Duclos, Javier Gigosos Ruipérez / Assistant architects: Hannes Libis, Mathilde Blum, Yannick Signani / Worksite supervision: Javier Gigosos Ruipérez / Structural engineer: Batiserf Ingénierie / Electrical engineer: BET Gilbert Jost / Fluids engineer: Solares Bauen / Economics: E3 Économie / Acoustics: ESP-DB Silence / Landscape gardener: Bruno Kubler / IT security: BET Gilbert Jost / Collaborators: demolition and asbestos removal_Arches Démolition; gardens_ID Verde; general earthworks, structural works, metal framework, elevation restoration_Batico 88; roofing, watertightness, glass roof_SAS Coanus; exterior metalwork_René HELLUY; locks, fences, gates_LAUGEL et RENOUARD; scaffolding_KAPP Échafaudages; plasterwork, indoor suspended ceilings_Plâtriers et Plaquistes de l’Est PPE; indoor joinery, furniture_HUNSINGER; tiling_Francesconi; glued-down flooring_Europ Revêtements; indoor paintwork, cleaning and finishing works_SARL LENOIR F et N; lifts_LTBO Ascenseurs; mobile shelving_BRUYNZEEL rangements SAS; plumbing, sanitary installations, wastewater system_SARL Éric Theisen; heating, ventilation_DALKIA; Electricity_SODEL / Client: Communauté d’Agglomération de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges / Program: multimedia library, exhibition room, multipurpose room, workshops, tourist information centre, reading garden / Use: culture center / Gross floor area: 4,819m² / Cost: €10,533,000 excl. VAT / Competition: 2016.12. / Examination of project: 2017.1.~2018.10. / Project execution: 2019.4.~2022.11. / Completion: 2024 / Photograph: ©Eugeni Pons (courtesy of the architect)
