Espacité

Developed after a competition of ideas was launched in 1987 for the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Le Corbusier’s birth in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the complex of Espacité propose to redevelop the “Place sans Nom” (the Nameless Square), an empty urban space that emerged after a series of demolitions. Three elements participate to restructure and enliven the site: a square that opens onto the avenue Leopold Robert; a bare building housing shops, offices, and flats; and an office tower with the Tourist Bureau on the ground floor, a coffee bar and a public observation gallery on the top floor, and offices on the remaining levels. The dialogue between the main elements of the composition, the tower and the bare building, contributes to the definition of the square renamed “Place Le Corbusier”. At the town’s scale the bare building restores the urban fabric while acknowledging its very characteristic longitudinal structure, and the tower - urban sign and observation point above the town - balances the masses of the highly buildings already existing on the Avenue Léopold Robert.