Villeneuve-Loubet - Community Media Library at the Cultural Centre Auguste Escoffier
Villeneuve-Loubet 06 270 – Alpes Maritimes Population: 15,000
A resized public reading network
The town of Villeneuve-Loubet already had in its possession two libraries: one in the heart of the village and the other by the sea, each with an area of 100 m².
The collections in these two institutions included 26,052 open access books, including 13,502 adult documents, 12,550 children’s documents and several computer workstations. But with two different computer systems, no pooling was possible. Moreover, without direction to define axes of work, cultural action was greatly reduced.
With the new community media library inaugurated in May 2013, and a performance hall dedicated to cultural actions, the cultural hub will play a much stronger role.
Staging of the building
This project is led by the municipality of Villeneuve-Loubet and by CASA (Sophia Antipolis Agglomeration Community).
The building is divided into two main parts: the community media library and the performance hall (450 seats). A separable kitchen is installed in the media library to complete the cultural action program of the media library focused on the themes of cuisine and gastronomy. In this, the media library pays tribute to the famous Villeneuvois cook Auguste Escoffier.
In order to make the most of the location of the pole, the architect wanted to preserve the quality of the vegetation, play with all this space plan, frame the perspectives on the banks, the village and the castle. The building marks a break between parking lots and green spaces up to the river. It offers, in addition to a cultural place, a space of contemplation and tranquility. In the media library, users have, as soon as they enter, an overview of all the available spaces.
The Community Media Library
With the media library and the performance hall, the Auguste Escoffier pole corresponds to a section of cultural facilities expected by the city.
By its location, this new public establishment, is called to radiate on the territory of the commune as well as on that of the neighboring communes of La colle sur loup and St-Paul de Vence. It will reach a population of about 25,000. Located in the Plans district, the media library is accessible from the village and beach. It will also serve as a relay for schools, crèches and airy centres to approach young readers as closely as possible.
This institution includes a collection of 40,000 documents to which 10,000 must be added from CASA’s network of media libraries. A special offer dedicated to gastronomy and the arts of the table is also available to support the culinary specificity proposed by the building.
The different areas of the media library:
- Reception area
- Common documentation area: 7,600 documents
- Adult space: 12,500 documents
- Youth area: 10,700 documents
For CASA, the opening of this library meets the objective of creating a dense public reading network, in accordance with the specificities and heritage of each of its municipalities.
Architects : Christophe ERADES and Céline BOUZAT
Venue Professor René Cassin’s driveway, district of plans
Surface : 1 550 m² of which 1 315 m² for the media library
Construction cost €3,829,023, €88 (excl. tax)
State aid €1,263,250 (excl. tax)
- Created by Odile Chatirichvili, a drac paca trainee with the book and reading consultant.
- Update carried out in July 2013 by Margaux Baussant, trainee at the drac Paca with the advisor for books and reading as part of a Master 1 "Law and Management of Culture and Media" at L'IMPGT, Institute of Public Management and Territorial Governance, University of Aix-Marseille.
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