Rehabilitation and extension of the former 19th century "Ateliers Berthier" to house the "Cité du Théâtre" (premises for the "Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique", the "Théâtre National de l'Odéon" and the "Comédie Française")

Located in the Zac Batignolles district, this project aims to create a cultural theatre hub bringing together French comedy, Odéon and CNSAD ("Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). If the Theatre embodies, as Hannah Arendt says, "the political art par excellence", at a time of participatory politics, when we talk about the building or more broadly about the places of performance, the Theatre must, more than ever, embody an invitation to participate, to share, to exchange, and to live together. Inventing the Cité du Théâtre in the Berthier workshops means finding the place of culture, freedom, resistance, publicity and the project’s place in the heart of this city. It is to open the Theatre to the city and its periphery. The Theatre opens itself up to the city, offering an agora, a place to meet, a place to talk and a "stage". The project and its facade are organised in the style of a theatre set. The project plays with a succession of facade plans. In the foreground, the existing buildings are conserved and rehabilitated. In the second plan, the new building's facade appears as a curtain of plants.