AHMM was named runner up in a competition to redevelop the existing university of the Carmelites located on Place Gabriel Peri in the centre of Nîmes, France, into a Conservatory of Music, Dance and Dramatic Art.

This project brings together three disciplines taught by Nîmes Conservatory, music, dance and theatre, into one cultural venue with renovated and adapted spaces designed for everyone: students, teachers and external audiences, with the aim of simplifying organisation and logistics. In addition to a new auditorium that can accommodate over 200 people the brief called for a mixture of spaces for individual and collective practices, training spaces, administrative offices and amenities. 

Our design proposals harmoniously blended contemporary elements with the old building, creating a warm palette of concrete, wood and metal, enhanced by pops of colour. A large, bright lobby invites visitors into the building, with a light-flooded triple height theatrical atrium along the historical façade providing a direct visual connection to the conservatory’s key spaces and connecting the conservatory to the external public square.

The auditorium, sitting at the heart of the building, is conceived as a multidisciplinary space for work, rehearsals and performances. The new cafeteria facing the garden offers a space of rest and calm, whilst a library located on the first level visually connects to the atrium and contributes to the animation of the hall.

The centerpiece of the project is the architectural redesign of the top level, creating a new extension which defines a new identity for the Conservatory of Nîmes and integrates the building with its urban context. The entire structure regains coherence and visual unity by extending the shape of the adjacent roof, whilst reorienting its shape to face the square positions the conservatory as the main focal point and asserts its role as a public building on Place Gabriel Péri.

With its simple yet striking form and a triple-height atrium behind the historic façade, the conservatory stands out and makes its presence known to the city.