This article was taken from the June 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
The Les Turbulences FRAC Centre, in the courtyard of an old military supply depot in Orléans, France, takes its inspiration from colliding weather fronts. The Paris-based architects Brendan MacFarlane and Dominique Jakob of Jakob+MacFarlane, imagined grids emerging from two older buildings, with the Regional Contemporary Art Fund (FRAC) Centre where the grids meet.
The structure is an entrance to the FRAC's display of more than 50 years of experimental architectural drawings and models. There are 22 other FRACs across France, and Orléans is one of six cities to recently commission dramatic new buildings to house their collections. Up next is the FRAC Aquitaine -- a
12,350m<sup>2</sup> arch on the banks of the Garonne river in Bordeaux. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group of Denmark and the Parisian FREAKS, it is scheduled for completion in 2017.
The uniform grey of Les Turbulences in this photograph belies its more dynamic reality: "The skin is covered in a paint, used in the car trade, which reacts to the light," says MacFarlane. "If it's sunny, the whole building looks golden; if it's overcast, it looks blue." At night, a grid of LEDs -- installed in the outer panelling by Paris-based artists Electronic Shadow -- displays patterns determined by the surrounding traffic and the weather.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
