In Tours, France, a building-size mask has transformed the nondescript face of an experimental arts center into a striking neighborhood talking point. Built from clear Plexiglas and lit by LEDs, the work—by Paris-based PCA Architecture—conceals the drab exterior of the Centre de Création Contemporaine (CCC) in a curvaceous display of lines of white light and repeated reflections.
Along with a number of stores, the CCC occupies part of the first floor of a residential tower for the elderly. “This building,” says CCC director Alain Julien-Laferrière, “is of no architectural interest. It’s made of concrete; it’s ugly.” Julien-Laferrière’s team decided against restoring the neglected exterior, instead selecting an architect who could show “the creation and the life inside the center, and to communicate that with the exterior,” he says.
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