Born from French philanthropist Aline Foriel-Destezet’s desire to create a dedicated music space that would complement the nearby timber concert hall La Grange au Lac, La Source Vive is the newest concert hall by studio PCA-STREAM and Patrick Bouchain, rising quietly into the wooded hillside above Lake Geneva in Évian-les-Bains. And stand out it does, both structurally and acoustically: shaped like an onion, the hall’s concrete acoustic shell is wrapped in a timber envelope and finished in a skin of copper.

In contrast to the slope-sited La Grange au Lac, La Source Vive is partly burrowed into the land. Inside, moulded plaster lines the concrete shell, where a 500-seat, acoustically engineered hall hosts chamber music year-round. The layering does double duty, tuning the room’s acoustics while keeping the temperature steady through every season, with a light-footprint heating and cooling system shared with the older building.

Patrick Bouchain served as artistic director, pairing his intuitive approach with PCA-STREAM’s analytical rigor. As with La Grange au Lac’s crafted acoustics, shaped years earlier under the discerning ear of acoustician Albert Xu, La Source Vive’s reverberation and clarity were scrupulously tested at every stage of construction. Though Xu passed away just as construction began, he left behind an acoustic legacy that carries through every note played in the hall.

With research and experimentation at the heart of the project, La Source Vive stands as the perfect complement to Foriel-Destezet’s vision for music, beautifully delivered by PCA-STREAM.

Photography © Salem Mostefaoui