Le Maillon Theatre in Strasbourg was first in the Hautepierre neighbourhood and moved in 1999 to a new space at the Wacken site, where it still resides today. The building’s construction seeks to uphold its position as a pillar of the dramatic arts that remains at the heart of contemporary creativity. The old, temporary structures were built as a workaround for an urgent situation, but they quickly became a local, national, and international landmark.

Le Maillon sought to bring theatre out of its own walls and away from a general stance often perceived as too elitist. The temporary nature of the site, which is renewed every three years, is its main asset. The theatre’s multi-disciplinary approach will now play out in a landscape consisting mainly of open spaces that transport audiences from one space to another within the same performance.

At the level of the city, the facility establishes a dialogue with major landmarks such as the European Parliament, the Alsace Regional Offices, and the Exhibition Centre, thereby defining itself as a truly public space. The parcel’s initial extrusion was chiselled to obtain the parallelepiped volume that will host the 7,000 m2 program. Running along the avenue Schutzenberger, it forms a corner on the place Adrien Zeller and provides a signal from the rue Jean Wenger Valentin.

On the inside, the circulations play a major role: they define the spaces without constraining their future evolution. The empty space distils the sense of possibility of place and for this to exist, one must define it, draw it, and conceive it. In the new Maillon Theatre, the idea of a space that essentially consists of open, free, or available spaces replaces the classic composition organised around the triad of hall-theatre-logistics area. A 4.60 m2 frame whose design was a result of the theatre’s requirements, reinforces the program’s flexibility. It forms a structure designed to receive any kind of arrangement. In this way, the delivery hall can be transformed into a stage; the hall and courtyards can become exhibition spaces; the small theatre, a social space, and so forth. Positioned along the frame, the wall defines the status and character of the empty space through multiple relationships between interior and exterior, entrance and exit, public and private, full and empty space, open and closed, day and night, seeing and being seen. It is mobile, which further increases the plan’s suppleness: its upper portion is structural, while its lower portion is composed of sliding, pivoting, and removable elements.

The volume reveals its interiority through monumental windows as a maze around which the differently landscaped courtyards and outdoor terraces are organised. The project creates thermal comfort by using the absolute minimum of heating during performances and very little insulation. Reducing this item allowed us to focus on the acoustics and the flexibility and mechanisms of the mobile walls. The four, perfectly identical concrete façades form light filters punctuated by an alternation of full and empty spaces, like windows on a city. At night, they project coloured images that transform the architecture into a kind of theatre, an abstraction invaded by representation.

Client: Eurométropole de Strasbourg / Cost: € 20.87M excl. VAT / Surface: 6 924 m² / Schedule: 2014 – 2019 / Team: Terrell (Structure and M.E.P.), Franck Boutté (HEQ), BMF (Surveyor), Lamoureux (Acoustics), Changement à vue (Scenography)