Les 26 Couleurs cultural centre
This former power station is the sole building that survived after the Leroy wallpaper factory closed. It is the only remaining witness to an industrial brownfield site that is about to become a new urban district. Now belatedly recognised as a heritage asset, its refurbishment as a cultural centre demonstrates the space’s capacity to host new programmes.
Gaël Lesterlin, Project director
Cabinet Talbot, Economist
Bethac, MEP engineering
Ingerco, Structural engineering
Peutz, Acoustics engineering
Scène, Exhibition design
The former Leroy wallpaper factory in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry closed in 1982. It had been built in 1914, designed by Paul Friesé – an architect and engineer specialising in industrial buildings – except for the power station. That building (except for its façade) was eventually listed on the supplementary inventory of historic monuments in 2006.
Rehabilitating it into a cultural centre involved celebrating its functional and rational architectural design – combining the refined composition of its façade and the raw power of its concrete structure – while transcending it, highlighting its spatial characteristics and enriching it through the art of grafting.
The main public entrance is now located in the building’s first bay where coal was once delivered. Boilers once stood in the second bay; now there is a multipurpose hall and performance space. In the third bay, the power generation machinery remains in situ alongside a 26-colour printing press.
The diversity and multiple colours of the exterior materials – brick, pebble-dash cement, millstone grit, metal window frames – have been uncovered and are now celebrated.
Inside, the white and grey of the render and concrete contrast with the black ceilings and the raw metal staircase that the public ascends to reach the performance hall. There, they see a work by François-Xavier Richard consisting of coloured wallpaper panels; it pays homage to the countless designs produced by the Leroy factory.