Paris-based duo jakob + macfarlane have designed the new site of the FRAC centre in orleans, france.the regional arts fund, dedicated to showcasing so-called radical architecture, is now housed in a 18th century detention center-turned-hospital. after a brief 1837 stint as a military supply depot, the historic building has entered it's latest life as a cultural repository extended by the likes of a faceted parametric form. based on the extrusion of existing architectonic grids, the tubular prosthetic reframes the courtyard as a public space and serves to link the existing buildings.
The grafted extension, dubbed 'the turbulences', acts as an urban signal in particular with the collaboration of artist duo electronic shadow. the intervention within the intervention consists of several hundred diodes installed on the prismatic aluminum facade, each arranged in a composition of varying densities based on the vertices of structure.
The architecture becomes an immaterial interface between the built space and the urban environment as the interactive skin is expressed as points, lines and planes of light. a software program functions in real time to dictate the light show based on climactic data and animated scenarios devised by electronic shadow. as such, the building's surface articulates flows of information as volume and mass is rendered a luminous sign.