This Cultural Centre housing one auditorium of 600 and another of 150 seats, a café, library, workshops and offices, was funded by the philanthropy of a local industrialist. The industrial idiom is used as a unifying element, as the architects enclose a series of structures within a rusted steel shell - patinated, perforated and familiar. Within this carapace, and disconnected from it, are individual, fully enclosed, reinforced concrete buildings. Amorphous in shape, they are connected by a series of walkways that function as internal streets, animating the complex. At night, the perforated shell fades as the interior structures’ lighting takes visual precedence. Evoking urban memory, the architects seek to contextualise their designs with the history of place.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture