Removing elements to create a new sense of space. This required a detailed understanding of the existing Espace des Arts in Chalon-sur-Saône (France). Atelier d’Architecture Pierre Hebbelinck and HBAAT (Heleen Hart and Mathieu Berteloot) transformed the arts centre into an innovative space, both architecturally and in terms of its collaborative approach with cultural partners.

Historian Marcel Otte once said that building is an act of violence against matter and memory. Pierre Hebbelinck also maintains that ‘a building site is a wound’. Nevertheless, he mitigates its consequences: ‘through the narrative of the architecture, we must be able to assess the capacity to evolve, so as not to stifle spatiality’. But how do you approach this in practice when a building was registered as 20th-century heritage in 2009 and classified as a historic monument in 2013? “We keep searching until every choice feels right.”