Villerupt is a small municipality in the Alzette Valley, in France’s Lorraine region, close to the Luxembourg border. It is historically linked to the exploitation of iron ore, in the mining of which many Italians worked. Almost all the industrial facilities have been dismantled, but the landscape preserves many vestiges of that period. This cultural center stands at the foot of one of the stone retaining walls that held up a technical platform on which the extracted mineral was unloaded before being transported to the mills.

As a tribute to the Italian roots of a large number of Villerupt’s inhabitants, the project drew inspiration from the architecture of the Colosseum in Rome and Villa Malaparte on the island of Capri, the rationalist icon where in 1963 Jean-Luc Godard filmed Contempt (Le Mépris), starring Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli. The hybrid cultural space accommodates activities related to different artistic practices, digital ones included, as well as a cinema seating 147, a performance hall with capacity for as many as 1,140, and a bar-restaurant. The construction opens with arches facing the Esplanade Nino Rota. The interior, bathed in light, pursues a timelessness through an architectural language of simple elements.