The Nantes Conservatoire, which has won a number of architectural awards, is the result of a collaboration between young, local architects and a Brussels-based firm. The partnership was a win-win situation for both parties: the French firm Raum secured a public contract, whilst the Belgian firm L’Escaut was given the opportunity to realise an international project.

Raum and L’Escaut’s project on the Île de Nantes is situated on the banks of the Loire in the Loire-Atlantique department. It involves an extension to the old conservatoire, which was built in the 1970s. The latter has a hexagonal plan, a façade with sawtooth-shaped projecting elements and dark-tinted windows. Nowadays, something like this is called ‘vintage’, but in reality it looks like a dusty government office building. The extension was intended to breathe new life into the whole complex.