February 15, 2012, Updated September 11, 2012

Kick your knees up and step in time, Ashkelon is getting a cultural makeover. The city’s new performing arts center will feature a large auditoriums, a music conservatory, studios, a library and exhibition spaces.

Photo courtesy of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
Ashkelon Music and Dance Center.

Renowned French architect Manuelle Gautrand will team up with Israeli architect Batia Svirsky-Melloul in designing the 5,000-square-meter music and dance center.

The new building will be impossible to miss. The blueprints show an exterior that looks like boxes piled one on top of the other. The façade of the building will consist of metal panels with large round openings. There will also be a huge open area around the building.

“The main inspiration was to create a festive and lively place,” Manuelle Gautrand says in a press release.

Asheklon Mayor Benny Vaknin told Ha’aretz that he hopes the new center will be “an architectural icon that will draw people from all over the country and the world.”

The two-year project is meant to break ground in 2013.

 

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