CONSERVATOIRE ROYAL de LIEGE

Campus de l'Université de Liège au Sart Tilman

Collaboration with architect Claude Strebelle, september 1980

The Conservatoire Royal de Liège is a prestigious institution. In 1980, Henri Pousseur was steering it towards an improved social and cultural participation : the aim would be less virtuosi education than catalysing general musical and dramatic activity in the city.
Scattered and cramped in its premises in the city, the Conservatoire accepted the offer of the University to move on the Sart-Tilman campus.

Two distinct stylistic expressions incorporate the dual nature of the institution :
The SCHOOL part for everyday teaching of instruments gets expressed through a vernacular typology.
And the CULTURAL CENTER part, with six diverse spaces and a multimedia library, is a place of active communication, and calls out to all the spatial and monumental possibilities of contemporary architecture.

The two parts are imbricated with a separate weft for each : the university weft for the cultural center, the neighbourhood for the school. The whole gets united by an urban space : an interior street which under the big roof becomes a square lined by the auditoriums and theatres. We attempted to answer the wish of director Henri Pousseur for a labyrinthic clearness.