La Tuffière Cultural and Municipal Centre
Situated perpendicular to the main street in a characteristic central Swiss village aligning the main thoroughfare, the Corpataux-Magnedens cultural and municipal centre integrates itself into the village context and adds a new focus for its public life.
The morphology of the building is based on farmhouses and utility buildings in the area. The building has an archaic simplicity: The roof stretches down and evokes an architectural archetype through the reinterpretation of well-known silhouettes.
The monolithic building volume was treated independently of the internal division of the rooms. The interior consists of densely juxtaposed areas, an assembled sequence of interlocking, combined programs packed into the block of the building, which is structured by the openings in the façade.
The tuff stone used connects the building with its surroundings in terms of contextual integration. The stone is closely related to the identity of the village and was quarried there even until the 1950s. The reference to the cultural heritage of the location fulfills an important task of anchoring the new municipal centre in its location.
By uniformly using the material both for walls and the roof, the building has a monolithic character – a calm, confident presence from which a deep connection to the context is revealed without denying the building’s exceptional, confident character as a public cultural centre.
Competition: 2003
Construction: 2005-2007
Credits
Team:
2b: Philippe Béboux, Stephanie Bender, Gudrun Warnking, Corina Ebeling
nb.arch: Sarah Nedir, Luc Bovard, Stéphane Schers, Yves Macherel
Construction management: Ruffieux-Chehab Architectes SA, Fribourg
Structural engineer: EDMS ingénieurs, Genève et Normal Office Sàrl, Fribourg
Landscape architect: Michèle Robin, Jona
