Nice - Faculty of Arts
- department: Alpes-Maritimes
- municipality: Nice
- naming: Faculty of arts
- address : 98 boulevard Edouard Herriot
- authors: SETAP architectural studies workshop (LAGNEAU, WEIL, DIMITRIJEVIC and associates)
- date: 1964-1967
- protection: unprotected building
- label patrimoine XXe: Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites (CRPS) du 16 November 2006
The promotion of the Collège Littéraire Universitaire de Nice to the rank of Faculty of Letters of full exercise in the early 1960s, led to the need to create a new university pole. To this end, the Filding property, a plot of 64,516 square meters, was acquired by the City of Nice in 1962 and made available to the Ministry of National Education.
The various buildings of the university pole form an ensemble that is organized around an inner courtyard which, by its declivity and its facilities can serve as an outdoor theatre. The main building (2° and 3° R+4 cycles) is elevated on light-coloured reinforced concrete cruciform pillars that contrast with the anthracite-coated facades. Five minor amphitheatres (two of 200 seats, two of 250 and one of 350) follow the slope of the site and are connected by a sequence of stairs which, from the entrance hall, extends to the phonetic building.
The large 500-seat tiered amphitheatre has a single concave concrete slab roof that sits on rough concrete walls. It is therefore distinguished by an architectural expression distinct from the whole, more plastic and sculptural. We can mention the influence of the Brutalist current. The library has a distribution on three levels to match the slope of the land. The reading room has four slices of different height: the ceilings being offset, the space between the different roofs is used for lighting. Four skylights provide skylight in the centre of the room.
Made in 1968 a stainless steel sculpture by artists Albert Féraud (a regular of ornamental works in schools) and Michel Guino delimited the central courtyard to the south.
- Editors: Jean-Lucien Bonillo, Raffaella Telese - Laboratoire INAMA/ Ensa Marseille 2005-2008
Read also in Heritage of the 20th century, the study The Glorious Thirty in the Alpes-Maritimes
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