In a former working-class neighbourhood of Marcq-en-Barœul, an otherwise affluent commune in the Lille metropolitan area, HBAAT (agent) and V+ have designed a highly successful small multicultural municipal facility. Serving as a cinema, restaurant, community hall and headquarters for the local brass band, it perfectly combines the programmatic intelligence of the Brussels office with the construction precision of the French agency, with a shared aim of intensifying uses and economising on resources.

Can a cinema today be anything other than one of those single-purpose machines made up of high-tech black boxes distributed by hyper-efficient traffic arteries in a sea of car parks? This is precisely what the new “Pont des Arts” demonstrates, which, on the site of an old village hall in Marcq-en-Barœul, takes over from the Art Deco municipal hall of the “Colisée-Lumière”, soon to be converted in the same neighbourhood. Capitalising on V+’s long experience in this field – the Sauvenière in Liège (2003–2008), Le Caméo in Namur (2013–2016) and Quai 10 in Charleroi (2009–2017) – the architects have skilfully manipulated the ingredients and defied the norms of this type of programme to transform it into a true urban hub.