Les Ateliers Claus

Les Ateliers Claus is an independent cultural platform for visual art and music based in Brussels. Over the years, Les Ateliers have offered space and time for recognized and upcoming artists to create work in an international environment.

The project, a mix between new construction and renovation, consists in creating a new cultural equipment mainly dedicated to music, on two plots and buildings located in a dense urban context. The programme (two music venues, a bar with atrium, a lodge for artists, three housing units and a music studio) is spread all over the six levels in a joyous complexity, inherent to the implantation of the two plots.

The existing building was and remains the “public” building, while the new building is complementary, “at its service”,clearly distancing itself and affirming its own identity. This complicity between both buildings allows us to integrate the architecture and the programme in the neighbourhood and the rhythm of existing surrounding façades.

Once inside the buildings, the boundaries between one and the other are constantly fuzzy and misleading. The concert hall and recording studio upstairs work as a “box in the box”and offer verified acoustic qualities. The project also presents some challenges in terms of stability and techniques.