Conceived for the new art forms of the twenty-first century, Bernard Tschumi's Le Fresnoy, the National Studio for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing, France, is part experimental art laboratory, part multimedia production center, part school, part cinema and exhibition and performance space. This highly celebrated building defies categorization, encouraging crossovers between architectural
programs and art forms.
A huge, technologically advanced roof covers both existing and recent construction, housing the renovated spaces of a former entertainment complex built in the 1920s. In Tschumi's remarkable building, the "
in between" or residual spaces located between the existing tiled roofs and the new, hovering steel structures punctuated by glass "clouds" become a place where artists can take cover.