2011 Leïla LeymarieLeïla Leymarie - Centre Pluri-Culturel Participatif de Verviers
The Vesdre, the river which crosses Verviers, is nowadays barely considered by the urban scene. However, this river had once been the heart of the city’s wool-based impressive industrial development, promoting its urban expansion and its international fame.

That is why the project not only aims to create extra equipment for the city but also attempts to reactivate the historical link to the river and to emphasize the landscape and practice quality, enabling the revalorization of ancient districts fallen into disuse after the industrial decline.

The core of the project is embodied by a large public square opening on the Vesdre. Designed as a living hub, it is the connector between the existing network of urban public spaces and a new network of public spaces at the riverbanks –under specific treatment for better appropriation and ecological reflection- this square is also the backbone area of the buildings constituting the cultural center.
The program of the cultural center, split into three distinct buildings, is based on socio-cultural observations of Verviers: a heterogeneous population and a hardly promoted –although substantial- associative life.

- “L'Usine associative”, scene of communication and learning, reinforces the associative enterprise.
- “La Fabrique d’Ecriture”, scene of languages and cultures exploration, is an essential tool given the border location of Verviers. It settles around rehabilitated ancient screening rooms, which are the only pre existing cultural anchors on the site. - “Le Chantier Artistique”, scene of artistic performance, is a landmark which completes the available facilities of the city.

Thereby, thanks to an intense architecture, a program in accordance with the socio-cultural reality, the erection of a major pole, and a complete integration to the existing urban networks, the “Centre PluriCulturel Participatif” of Verviers gives the impulse to the creation of a renewed Verviers, dynamic and attractive.

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