Birthplace of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi is a city in southern France, in the oasis of the river Tarm, whose clay materials have given rise to the reddish constructions that characterize the locality. Conceived as the center of the new Alley of Culture connecting the Romanesque cathedral to the Rocheguede park, the Albi Grand Theater stands out among metallic flashes in the urban texture. To obtain this effect, the compact glazed volume was clad with a shimmering golden skin which, despite the look of weightlessness that differentiates the building from the rest of the constructions, fuses with its clayish surroundings at dusk. Standing on a triangular plot, the Grand Theater creates on the one hand a square facing the neighborhood, and on the other hand a large stage saluting the cathedral. The building’s public foyer connects them. The interior contains the administrative zone and the theater, the roof-terrace shelters the café, and backstage and the rest of the program (eight projection rooms and the parking garage) are underground...[+][+]