A place for teaching and handing down circus memory, the Académie Fratellini is the most important structure for circus arts in the whole of Europe. It was built in Plaine Saint-Denis in 2002-2003, along the railway tracks, in a retail zone under construction. The school looks like a village square where the circus sets up. It’s made up of several individual buildings (show venue, workshops, living space, offices, and canteen) that form a sort of architectural parade. Here, the agency turned a new leaf in its experimentation with materials: the project brings together aluminium coloured weatherboarding (refused by Eurodisney) and various sorts of recovered wood, left unvarnished – trunks with the bark removed, timber and non-planed glulam. “With very strict budgetary and timing constraints, we had great fun in the spirit of companionship, drawing up a catalogue of the different sorts of structures that make this building so different from anything else.’ (Loïc Julienne) With its red excrescences that house the cantilevered stands, the show venue offers a new variation on the theme of the marquee. “Placed” on the asphalt of this old car park that couldn’t be dug out because of land pollution, the building is reinforced by gigantic tree trunks. Its crystalline structure is a tribute to the structure of the Club de Roussakov by Melnikov (1928). Its desire is to be the emblem of a social vision and active pedagogy, open to the body’s movements; it brings an exuberant and joyful image to the skyline of Saint-Denis, a break with the generic and monotonous urbanity.
