After one year of building work and five years of prefiguration and development, the Hasard Ludique opened its doors to the public restauring the old railway station on the avenue de St-Ouen (Paris 18th).
Built in 1889, the place is full of history and stories and has undergone surprising and unexpected ycles of lives through the years : cinema, one pound shop (…) to finally become an hybrid cultural place where there’s now a theatre, workshop with collective artistic practices and a bistrot gourmand.
At the beginning of 2016, the Hasard Ludique decided to entrust the design of the furniture and the interior design to the design studio: Barreau Charbonnet, and its ornementation and all the graphic idendity to Appelle Moi Papa.
The method chosen was incredibly natural and obvious: it was necessary to develop a project build with the public and to offer the community of volunteer builders, called ‘les bâtisseurs’, the opportunity to participate in the design of the total project.
The studios have decided to take literally the alliance of the two words: Hasard (Random) and Ludique (playful) and put in place a method of ‘game’, a playful design conception that would push the idea of Random into the various exchanges during creative stages.
It all began with walks or ‘Dérives urbaines’ (in October 2016) in the 17th and 18th arrondissements of Paris with the volunteers to admire and be inspired by the streets : shapes, patterns, materials, colours and typographies then taken in photos. This set of several hundreds photos, became a creative base and elaborated all the rest of the project.
After a synthesis work by the Hasard Ludique team and the two studios Barreau Charbonnet and Appelle moi Papa, 3 scenarios (moodboards) stood out and were presented to the ‘bâtisseurs’ during a voting weekend ( November 2016).
From this chosen scenario, the studios were able to form the basis of their work for the coming year, all the constructive aesthetic variations of the general design (furniture and decors) and all the graphic identity (signage, general colours , graphics, communication, …)
It was followed by various exchange and construction workshops (furniture, mural paintings, plants …) with these same ‘bâtisseurs’ always and even more involved in this project simply because they became the decision makers and the creators likewise the initiators of the project.
This method, close to the Dadaism movement was a risky bet for each party as the idea of ‘Random’ was the ‘fil rouge’. But finally this idea of Random has succeeded, for example, the mixture of two photos taken by 2 builders gave the pattern and the shape of a chair.
Tom Douriaux, co-founder of Appelle Moi Papa explains: ‘The background of the project is in the process and with the local residents as a basis. We had only to let ourselves be invaded and carried by the dynamic of the neighborhood and then give a contemporary interpretation with our codes, our eye and knowledge. ‘
Responsible for the whole visual identity of the place, the studio from Nantes developed the universe within the venue on certain sur- faces such as the walls, tables and chair restoration (…). It was at the end of March 2017 (paint and silk screening) that the 25 tables, seats and backrests of chairs, all unique, were designed according to a rationalised production process.
Their creations based on colour, contrasts, and shapes with schemas as references, were all framed and marked by the studio who finally conducted an independent and concrete intervention.
One detail: the idea of the glitter behind the bar and in the studio upstairs in the mural fresco is a ‘clin d’œil’ of preston concrete (in the small pebbles imbricated) that we found everywhere in the neighborhood. Everything is a result of inspiration and nothing is left on a side by the team of Appelle Moi Papa.
The graphic adventure was based on the long term. The participative approach has been extended in a creative way. It’s the scenario (range of colours and forms) resulted from the urban walks and subsequently interpreted by the Appelle Moi Papa who finally gave the place: a unique touch, ‘chic and street’.
They will also be the first artists to launch collaboratively on April 29th a fresco presented in the restaurant on the side with the view down on to the rails.
This exceptional project was thought, reflected in a group and the look and work of the designers Barreau and Charbonnet gave the project this hybrid, complete and practical side. It was the exploitation of the place that was primeval. How to make the space by their furniture and their everyday use, a flexible place of life with multiple facets. Beyond the practical side, it was also necessary to add the idea of rapide transformation : a night area into a day area (for example : a restaurant area in a concert area, a traditional dining area in a standing counter space).
Nicolas Barreau, one of the two founders of Barreau and Charbonnet adds: ‘We had to think about different issues. Think of both staff and visitors of all ages. As a result, all the factors have been adapted: the weight of the tables and chairs calculated, the ambience and the light considered, for example : the mirrors were placed only for their reflections and a choice of suitable colours.’
The Barreau Charbonnet studio has designed all the furniture elements in pine panel. This selected wood is marked with an expressive veining representing a living matter where each piece becomes unique, with marble/mineral plates existing in the neighborhood on various building facades: a literal expression of living matter …
In the Lobby of the Hasard Ludique, small furniture : programming box, box office, a furniture for the flyers accompanying the bar with its counter, its light box and its closing partition. The bar counter accentuates the veining of the wood and makes a particular link with the mottled silkscreened by Appelle Moi Papa on the back of the chairs.
The tables and benches are built-in and modular in order to create a set that lives both day and night. Each of its elements derives from the register of forms, materials and colours of the scenario chosen by the batissuers and then developed by the two studios.
The recurring geometrical shapes of the hall and especially those of the mirrors come from the shapes of the cut stone present in the vaults above the windows and those supporting the balconies of the Parisian Haussmannian facades. The panel of colours on some furniture are drawn from the study done between the designer and the public during the workshops.
This palette is inspired by colours of the neighborhood graffitis and expresses in a poetic way the mixture, the encounter between two populations and cultures, and to the specific idea of the future cultural center: a place of exchange.
For the restaurant and its 6 meters high ceiling with the glass roof, it was necessary to consider another relationship to space and to put forward the dialogue between the light and the rails and especially to savour the history of this place ever present in this part of the space overlooking the linear rail.
With the idea of compartments, such as a lunch in a wagon, the restaurant of 30 covers a day is a place where the designers’ interven- tion had to be pragmatic and optimal. Everything is thought, appreci- ated and adapted. Small romantic touch of the designers to the lovers: a unique table is dedicated to them on which they will dine side by side and in front of the railway.
Upstairs, the studio Barreau Charbonnet pushes the idea of Random even further. The furniture were carefully sourced, bought on catalogues or build from scrap materials of the construction, all modified in order to complete the various spaces: the multipurpose room, the artists’ lodges, the office or the stage manager. The work on the different chairs shows the attention of the studio to the smallest details: variations of the different shapes, customisation, painting in the colours of the Hasard Luduqe but above all they were able to harmonise all these elements together with an amazing ability.
For the terrace and its 40 covers, another popular choice was made by Nicolas and Jules (Barreau Charbonnet) with the choice of umbrel- las coming straight from the flea market of St Ouen and the recog- nisable register of the faiground stallholder spirit very present in the close neighborhood.
In all these spaces structuring the Hasard Ludique, everything is rigorously sized: a double sideboard used for lunch becoming an annexe bar during a busy night in the concert hall, benches built in corners of the walls. The general colours chosen to dress them also result from walks or ‘Derives Urbaines’ made with the public: yellow from a shop sign in the heart of the Saint-Ouen flea market, orange-red from the buildings of the NEY boulevard, green / Blue from a colourful recurring street art tag and the typographies are borrowed from the store signs considered interesting by the public during their walks.
For the two studios, both based in Nantes, each detail has a sense, creation is admittedly a game of chance but it’s based on a profound search for meaning, on the history of all this design site and on a real understanding of the 17th and 18th districts of Paris. And beyond their approach, their methods and their coloured, modern and fluid collabo- ration, the two studios agreed that finally ‘Time will do things’ to their different productions, and they were all faithful to the project and con- cept of the Hasard Ludique. For all the actors involved in the project, the challenge was raised and achieved: each of the ‘bâtisseurs’ who participated in the project will recognise themselves in the Hasard Ludique universe, and thus all future visitors.
Photos courtesy Jean Philippe Corre
