![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) ![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) ![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
BUILDING |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
| ![](../images/spacer.gif)
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
MQB Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Musée des Arts et Civilisations d'Afrique, d'Asie, d'Océanie et des Amériques |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
DESIGNER |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
DESCRIPTION |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Musée du Quai Branly |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
A museum about the other cannot be like other museums. Before asking questions about architecture, it must ask questions about society, culture, and civilization. This is no doubt why President Jacques Chirac gave the Musée du Quai Branly its status as a grand projet.
The solutions a designer can bring to questions about society are not just architectural ones. As much through art as through architecture, through poetry rather than by magic, we must depart from Western representations of the other and open up our vision, invite a change in attitude, engender a desire for new encounters, give architectural form to the diversity of the world and the universal creativity of the human community.
The Musée du Quai Branly is a meditation on otherness and elsewhere. The space the objects inhabit is neither religious nor sacred, nor are the objects sacralized by it. It is elsewhere, different. It welcomes the objects, sheltering them from the world in which they have arrived so that they can recall the worlds they came from. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Origins |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
To understand the origins of the Musée du Quai Branly is to go back to André Malraux. As early as 1952, this adventurer, aesthete and future Minister of Culture under de Gaulle spoke out to bring the artworks of the Musée de l’Homme under the wing of France’s national collections as part of his vision of an “imaginary museum”. Some forty years would go by before this dream took shape. In 1990, the gallery-owner Jacques Kerchache, a renowned collector of primitive art, published his manifesto, “Masterpieces from around the world are born free and equal.” He in turn advocated the creation, within the Louvre, of a section devoted to the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. President Chirac, himself deeply committed to a subject whose dimensions are as much cultural as diplomatic, set up a commission in 1995 to reflect upon the place of arts premiers in France’s institutions. Chaired by Jacques Friedmann, a friend of the President and advisor to the Elysée, its conclusion in April of the following year was that the collections of the Musée de l’Homme and those of the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (MNAAO) must be brought together in a new museum whose dual vocation would be to present and conserve the collections, and to promote research and education. In October 1996, Jacques Chirac announced the creation, in Paris, of a Musée des Arts et des Civilisations, together with the opening in the Louvre of galleries showing masterpieces from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. In February 1997, a preparatory mission for the future museum was created, chaired by Jacques Friedmann. In December 1998 it delivered its conclusion, made public as of January, for the creation of the Musée du Quai Branly as an établissement public, an autonomous body under State control, chaired by Stéphane Martin. A site was chosen among several possibilities for the museum’s future building. In January 1999, an international competition was launched to appoint a project manager, concluding in December with the selection of the joint proposal submitted by Architectures Jean Nouvel – OTH – Ingerop. Meanwhile the Pavillon des Sessions, furbished by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, opened at the Louvre in April 2000. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
The competition brief: an innovative museum, an integrated museum |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
The competition brief made clear the challenges facing this new museum whose vocation must be to propose “a profoundly original concept in terms of scientific facilities, organization and works shown to the public.” “As a place of discovery and wonder, respect and admiration, a place for training the eye and forming an understanding of the other, the museum must address every audience and open the way for contemporary creation, by fostering a special relation with teachers.” It also emphasized the need to stage, alongside the reference collections, temporary exhibitions, “a diversity of resources and events illustrating the many forms of cultural expression”, and a resource center open to the countries that produced these artworks. They would also be involved in the museum’s research and cultural program as part of a network of international cooperation. The different functions of the museum were thus defined:
- a place to present and conserve the collections of the Musée de l’Homme and the MNAAO together with new acquisitions,
- a center for resources, research and education,
- a place for the performing arts.
These were underpinned by the desire for “mobility” in how the collections were shown, in particular through the prominence given to temporary exhibitions and to exchanges with scientific communities and the countries of origin. Alongside these objectives, rendered in the brief, were considerations relating to the future museum’s urban context. In particular, the new development must fully comply with building regulations for the site, including the amount of space given over to landscaped areas. Again this was made clear in the brief’s request for a project that would be “ambitious in its objectives and modest in the size of the construction which must fit seamlessly into the urban fabric.”fut sélectionné parmi les cinq finalistes. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
A prestigious site under close surveillance |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Until the late 1980s, the land chosen for the project was the site of government offices, built after the second world war and used by the Ministry of Finance. The site became vacant when staff transferred to the new Ministry of Finance buildings at Bercy. Initially, it was earmarked to become an international conference center, a grand projet under François Mitterand. A competition was launched in the late 1980s to choose an architectural project for the site. The winning proposal was by Francis Soler. Jean Nouvel was selected as one of the five finalists. This project for an international conference center was later withdrawn under Prime Minister Edouard Balladur for budgetary reasons. The work undertaken by the architect and the contracting authority had nonetheless made clear the many obstacles raised by the restrictions which planning regulations imposed on building height and the obligation to incorporate landscaped areas. Indeed, the site stands at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and is wide open onto Quai Branly and the Seine, opposite the Palais de Tokyo and in the continuation of the Debilly footbridge: it is a prestigious and privileged location, and because of this the object of great vigilance. The decision to build the Musée du Quai Branly here further adds to the importance of this already culturally endowed area, with the Colline de Chaillot, home to the Musée de l’Homme, soon to be renovated, and the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
The Competition |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
The panel of sixteen judges, presided by Stéphane Martin, included representatives of the supervising authorities, the Director of the Centre Pompidou (Jean-Jacques Aillagon), Jacques Friedmann, architects, and personalities including Paolo Conde, Mayor of Rio, Louis Schweitzer, Chairman of Renault S.A., and the artist Ousmane Sow. Fifteen teams were selected to take part:
- Tadao Ando / Jean-Michel Wilmotte / Masakazu Bokura
- Patrick Berger / Jacques Anziutti
- Chaix, Morel & associés • Felice Fanuele / Peter Eisenman
- Foster & Partners
- Future System, Armanda Levete / Jan Kaplicky
- Jakob / MacFarlane
- Architectures Jean Nouvel
- OMA, Rem Koolhaas / W.J. Steutel (who later withdrew)
- Périphériques / MVRDV
- Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Atelier Christian de Portzamparc
- Rudy Ricciotti / Pierre Lombard
- MAA Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen / AW2 Architecture Workshop 2
- Francis Soler
The panel submitted its order of preference to President Chirac who, acting on their recommendation, elected Jean Nouvel’s project as the winner. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
An unexpected and scrupulous project |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
As unexpected as its composition may be, this project fully met the requirements laid down in the brief. It scrupulously respected layout and surface area, and conformed to planning regulations. A further distinguishing feature of the building was its position, voluntarily within the maximum permissible height and set back from Quai Branly and Rue de l’Université. This opened up space for a vast garden that continues under the main edifice which is raised on piles. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
A project in a context of continuity |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Eleven years have gone by from the commission on arts premiers to the opening of the museum. And throughout these eleven years, the same people have seen the project grow. Its initiators still accompany it today. Jean Nouvel’s extended role, including notably the museographic design, has made possible a rich and uninterrupted dialogue since 2000. This museum is a collective enterprise and for this reason the end result differs little from the original project. The intentions have not changed; rather they have become more precisely defined in the light of exchange. |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Jean Nouvel’s letter of intent for the international architecture competition (1999) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
“Presence-absence or selective dematerialization” |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
“This is a museum built around a collection. Where everything serves to draw out the emotions at play within the primal artifact, where everything is done to shield it from the light while capturing that solitary sunbeam so indispensable to its vibrancy and spirituality. It is a place marked by symbols of forest and river, and the obsessions of death and oblivion. It is a sanctuary for the scorned and censured works produced erstwhile in Australia and America. It is a haunted place wherein dwell and converse the ancestral spirits of those who, awakening to the human condition, invented gods and beliefs. It is a strange and unique place. Poetic and disturbing. It can only be constructed by challenging the expression of our present Western contingencies. Farewell to structures, fluidity, woodwork, emergency stairs, railings, suspended ceilings, spotlights, pedestals, display cases and labels... If their function must remain then let them be out of sight and mind, let them step aside before the sacred artifacts and leave room for communion. Easy to say, not so easy to accomplish... The resulting architecture is of an unexpected nature. Archaic? Regressive? On the contrary: achieving this result calls for the most specialized techniques: the windows are wide and clear, often printed with huge photographs; randomly sized and positioned, the pillars assume the aspect of trees or totem poles... But the means are unimportant, what matters is the result: material form seems to melt away, giving the impression that the museum is simply a sanctuary without walls, set in a wood. When dematerialization meets the expression of signs, it becomes selective. Artworks are cradled in illusion. All that remains is to imagine its poetics: through a gradual shift in perception, the Parisian garden becomes a sacred wood and the museum dissolves into its depths.” |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
LOCATION |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Continent![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Nation![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Region![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
District![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Town![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Neighborhoods![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Address![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Website![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
TYPOLOGY |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Main |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
ARCHITECTURE | Buildings for cultural activities
Libraries and media libraries
Multi-purpose centres
Museums and buildings for exhibitions
Ethnographic museums
| |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Additional |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
ARCHITECTURE | Buildings for offices and professional practises
Offices
Commercial buildings
Bars, cafeterias
| |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
CHRONOLOGY |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Project |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
| ![](../images/spacer.gif)
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
1999 - 2002
project winner of competition
|
|
Realisation |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
| ![](../images/spacer.gif)
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
2002 - 2006 |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
BIBILIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Camilla Pagani, Genealogia del primitivo. Il musée du quai Branly, Lévi-Strauss e la scrittura etnografica, Negretto Editore, Mantova 2009 |
|
"Jean Nouvel. tre opere recenti", Casabella 752, febbraio/february 2007, pp. 64-97 "Museo del Quai Branly. Parigi", Casabella 752, febbraio/february 2007, pp. 64-79 (64-97)
Michele Reboli, "Un museo per le culture extra-europee/A museum for extra-European cultures", Casabella 752, febbraio/february 2007, pp. 65, 104-105 (64-79)
Mauro Galantino, "Jean Nouvel al Quai Branly/Jean Nouvel at Quai Branly", Casabella 752, febbraio/february 2007, pp. 76-77, 105-106 (64-79)
Francesco Dal Co, "Soltanto "un bel Outil"?/Just "un bel outil"?", Casabella 752, febbraio/february 2007, pp. 78, 106 (64-49) |
|
Joann Gonchar, Francois Chaslin, "At a curve in the Seine, Ateliers Jean Nouvel erects a bold, multifaceted, and unexpected ensemble for the Musee du quai Branly", Architectural Record 195, february 2007, pp. 86-95 |
|
Joann Gonchar, "'Gardens' on exterior walls: one face of the Musee du quai Branly (Ateliers Jean Nouvel) and a vegetated wall of the Vancouver aquarium, Aquaquest (Stantec Architecture)", Architectural Record 195, february 2007, p. 149 |
|
Sally Price, Paris Primitive. Jacques Chirac's Museum on the Quai Branly, University of Chicago Press, 2007 |
|
Jay Merrick, "Terra nova: Musee du Quai Branly, Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", Monument 76, december 2006-january 2008 [Civil-ity], pp. 96-100 |
|
Elena Cardani, "Per Africa, Oriente e Americhe/In Paris", L'Arca 218, ottobre/october 2006, pp. 4-15 |
|
Michael Webb, "Museum on Quai Branly, Paris. Architectures Jean Nouvel", Architectural Review 1316, october 2006 [Culture in the city], pp. 44-53 |
|
Peter Naumann, "Naturally in Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", Architecture Australia 5/2006, september-october 2006, pp. 88-95 |
|
"Jean Nouvel. Musée du quai Branly", Domus 895, settembre/september 2006, pp. 18-35 Frédéric Edelmann, "L'esotismo architettonico al servizio dell'etnologia e del mercato dell'arte/Architectural exoticism at the service of ethnology and trade in art", Domus 895, settembre/september 2006, pp. 20, 23 (18-35) Manuel Orazi, "Una metafora in forma di giardino. Intervista a Gilles Clément/A garden metaphor. Interview with Gilles Clément", Domus 895, settembre/september 2006, pp. 26-27 (18-35) |
|
Jean Nouvel, "Musee du Quai Branly, Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", A+U. Architecture and Urbanism 9/2006, september 2006 [Exhibition space], pp. 22-39 |
|
Jean Nouvel, "Quai Branly Museum, Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", GA Document 93, september 2006 [Jean Nouvel], pp. 20-77 (8-131) |
|
Sophie Roulet, "Jean Nouvel's Musée du Quai Branly, Paris", A10 new European architecture 10, july-august 2006, "Instant history" p. 62 |
|
Axel Sowa, "Musee du quai Branly, Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, mai-juin/may-june 2006, pp. 36-39 |
|
François Chaslin, "Nouvel en el Sena. El Museo Quai Branly de Paris/Nouvel on the Seine. Musee Quai Branly, Paris. Ateliers Jean Nouvel", Arquitectura Viva 107/108, III - VI 2006 [Madrid metrópolis], "Argumentos y reseñas. Arte / Cultura" pp. 165-169 |
|
Hugues Demeude, Musée du quai Branly. L'esprit du lieu, Scala, Paris 2006 |
|
"Jean Nouvel. Museo di Quai Branly, Parigi" in Next. 8. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura. 2002, Marsilio, Venezia 2002, "Musei" pp. 96-99 |
|
Jean Nouvel, "Un hotel a New York e un museo a Parigi/A New York hotel and a Paris museum", Domus 827, giugno/june 2000, pp. 7-17 (2-17)
Jean Nouvel, "Musée des Arts et Civilisations, Quai Branly, Parigi/Musée des Arts et Civilisations, Quai Branly, Paris", Domus 827, giugno/june 2000, pp. 12-17 (2-17) |
|
Elena Cardani, "Il Museo di Quai Branly/On the Banks of the Seine", L'Arca 146, marzo/march 2000 [Immagine/Image], "l'Arca2" p. 92 |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
ADDITIONS AND DIGRESSIONS |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
The Louisiana Manifesto
In June 2005, Jean Nouvel was invited to exhibit his work at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, outside Copenhagen. He drew up a manifesto setting out his views on architecture: a plea for the specific over the generic; for the here and now, the present and the living, over the everywhere and nowhere.
We should read and understand these two cultural buildings, as they open simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, in the light of this manifesto.
|
In 2005, more than ever, architecture is annihilating places, banalizing them, violating them. Sometimes it replaces the landscape, creates it in its own image, which is nothing but another way of effacing it. And then there is Louisiana, an emotional shock. The living proof of a forgotten truth: architecture has the power to transcend. It can reveal geographies, histories, colours, vegetations, horizons, qualities of light. Impertinent and natural, it is in the world. It lives. It is unique. It is Louisianan. It is a microcosm, a bubble. No image, no statement can plumb its depth. You have to be there to experience it, to believe it. It is an expansion of our world at a time when that world is getting smaller. (...) We must establish sensitive, poetic rules, approaches that will speak of colours, essences, characters, the anomalies of the act of creation, the specificities of rain, wind, sea and mountain. Rules that speak of the temporal and spatial continuum, that will turn the tide towards a mutation, a modification of the inherited chaos, and take account of all the fractal scales of our cities. (...) By contrast, the ideology of the specific aspires to autonomy, to the use of the resources of the place and the time, to the privileging of the non-material. How can we use what is here and nowhere else? How can we differentiate without caricaturing? How can we achieve depth? Architectural design on the large scale does not mean inventing ex nihilo. Architecture means transformation, organizing the mutations of what is already there. Architecture means encouraging the embedding in the landscape of places that anyway have a tendency to invent themselves. It means to reveal, to give direction.
It means prolonging lived history and its traces of past lives. It means listening to the breathing of a living place, to its pulsations. It means interpreting its rhythms in order to create.
Architecture should be seen as the modification of a physical, atomic, biological continuum. As the modification of a fragment situated at the heart of our immense universe amidst the dizzying discoveries made by macro- and nanophysics. Whatever the scale of the transformation, of a site or of a place, how are we to communicate the unpredictability of the mutation of a living fragment? Can we domesticate the visible components - clouds, plant-life, living organisms of every size - with signs, reflections, new plantings? How does one create a vibration that evokes a hidden depth, a soul? This is surely a task for poetry, since only poetry can produce “the metaphysics of the instant”. To work at the limits of the achievable - with the mysterious, the fragile, the natural. To anticipate the weathering of time, patina, materials that change, that age with character. To work with imperfection as a revelation of the limits of the accessible. (...) The detail - like the totality - is an opportunity to invent, to dislocate, to enrich the world, to recompose, to reassemble, to provoke confrontations of textures, lights, of unlikely techniques. (...) An architecture that creates singularity in duality, that invents it in the confrontation with a situation, is Louisianan. (...) Architecture means the adaptation of the condition of a place to a given time by the willpower, desire and knowledge of certain human beings. We never do this alone. We always do it somewhere - certainly for some person or persons, but always also for everyone. It is time we stopped limiting architecture to the appropriation of a style. The age needs architects who doubt, who seek without thinking they have found, who put themselves at risk, who rediscover the values of empiricism, who invent architecture as they design it, who surprise themselves, who notice the mildew on their windows and know how to interpret it. Let’s leave the cosmetics of vain cities to the architects who think of themselves as aesthetes. From now on, let architecture rediscover its aura in the inexpressible, in the cloudy. In the imperfection of what is invented! The architect is not aware of having come to the end of his work until he slips and slides
from creation to modification, from assertion to allusion, from building-up to filling-in, from construction to infiltration, from imposition to superimposition, from the neat to the nebulous, from addition to deviation, from calligraphy to etching, to erasure...
Instead of the archaic architectural goal of domination, of making a permanent mark, today we should prefer to seek the pleasure of living somewhere. Let us remember that architecture can also be an instrument of oppression, a tool for conditioning behaviour. Let us never permit anyone to censure this pursuit of pleasure, especially in the domain of the familiar and intimate that is so necessary to our wellbeing. Let us identify ourselves. Everyone bears a potential world within himself or herself. Let us be aware of our potential, which is equal to that of any human being - largely unexplored, often poetic, therefore disquieting. (...) We want to be able to keep on travelling,
to listen to spontaneous music, to live in landscapes as inhabited as a personality, to meet men and women who invent their own culture, to discover unknown colours.
Architecture is the vehicle for variations. A permanence changed by life and events. (...) Architecture has to be impregnated and to impregnate to be impressionable and impress to absorb and emit Let us love architecture that knows how to navigate,
that shines like a light, that can let you read the topography, the lie of the land, feel the wind, the skies, the soils, the waters, the fires, the smells, the trees, the grass, the flowers, the mosses... that remembers the usages and customs of the place and at the same time interfaces with the information terminals of our world, that shows us the ages and those who have journeyed through them. such architecture is built up in harmony with its time. The stragglers who are still constructing the archetypes of the 20th century are diachronically ill, refusing to live their lives.
Architecture dates. We know it to be mortal, imperilled, as sure as we know it is alive. And so we watch it emerging from the darkness and imagine that it will return there one day. The architectures of situation, of the specific, the Louisianan architectures weave this bond between past and future, mineral and vegetal, between the instant and eternity, the visible and the invisible. They are the loci of emergence and of disappearance. They distill the essence of their own slow, poignant ruin. This consciousness of time overlays the surprises of the new lives lived in the place, the great rhythms of dawn and twilight the indifference of the inevitable hours of idleness and decay... Louisianan architectures are dreamed architectures, full of silences - places of forgetfulness but also of archaeology. They become the cue for reinterpretations of an ambivalent past. Louisianan architectures move us because they have been dreamed into life, into insecurity, into resistance, sometimes into despair; ruined or assassinated, but never forgotten, because like the Phoenix disappearing in the flames only to be reborn, they make us dream of eternally recurring points of light... The uncertainty, the simplicity and even the modesty of the Louisianan materials and resources hold out the hope that Louisianan architecture can continue to exist in any economic conditions. That it can filter through even to the shameful shantytowns of our global politics... And to see the beauty in the precariousness of poverty is not to forget the desperate conditions. It is simply to see the power and dignity of life in extreme situations and to experience the unplumbed depths of humanity to be found there. (...) Exploration is a duty, understanding is an intense desire, questioning is a condition of evolution. We think with our senses, we feel with our thoughts. Contradictions generate sparks. Sensations generate emotions. Emotions generate love, love the desire to live, to share, to give, to extend our life into others. Architecture is connecting, belonging, interfering, it is yea-saying and nay-saying. But it is also harmonizing the inanimate with the living. Harmony is not always soothing; it can be a source of unimaginable pleasure, of a hope beyond hope, an elevation of our imaginative powers. Pleasure is sometimes the improbable but indispensable catalyst that transforms intelligent doubt or honest despair into a conquering force. (...) Architecture is a gift from the deepest part of yourself. It is the making of worlds, the invention of places, of micropleasures, microsensations, quick dips into reality. Let architecture be vibrant, perpetually echoing the changing universe! Let it build temporary oases for nomads in search of the directions, the desires that form them as long as they live! How can we mark out, how can we fence in our lifespan? How can we petrify serenity, calm, delight, far less ecstasy, intoxication, euphoria, jubilation? (...) Chance brings us encounters to be exploited, situations to be invented! This arid architecture should be used as a support, a point of departure for odd, dislocated, exploded, inverted strategies. One of the missions of Louisianan architecture is to complete, to re-orient, to diversify, to modify and to imagine what the generic architectures can never imagine: the lifetimes to which they will give shelter. Let us be Louisianans! Let us resist! Let us reclaim the architectures of the improbable! Those that unite praxis and poetry to leave their imprint on a place, to throw in their lot with that place. Let us be Louisianans in all these territories:
from Petra to Sanaa, from Venice to Manhattan, from Chartres to Ronchamp, from fishermen’s huts to the tents of the desert, from the favelas of Rio to the industrial ruins of the Ruhr, from Katsura to Louisiana ...
All clashes of temporalities and illuminations, all poetic paradoxes. The miraculous paradoxes that Paul Valéry summed up in this simple line:
“Time scintillates and dream is knowledge” |
Passage cited by:
Musèe du Quai Branly |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
CLIENT |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Président de la République Française [Jacques Chirac] Etablissement Public de Musée du Quai Branly |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
AMOUNT |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
DIMENSIONAL DATA |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Surface |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
total sq.m. 76,500 floor sq.m. 40,660 site sq.m. 25,100
Museum Reference collections sq.m. 4,900 Mezzanine sq.m. 670 "Thematic" mezzanine sq.m. 800 Multimedia mezzanine sq.m. 195 Large gallery sq.m. 1,500 Small gallery sq.m. 640
Bookshop sq.m. 250
Garden sq.m. 18,000
Vegetal Wall sq.m. 800 |
|
Lenght |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Height |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Capacity |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Media Library, Teaching and Research Reading room seating 220 Rare collection room seating 14 New publications room seating 52 Classrooms seating 55 Discovery workshops seating 50 Study rooms seating 26
Auditorium Main room: 500 seats Projection room: 100 seats Open-air theater: 150 seats
Car Park 521 vehicles
Catering Terrace restaurant: 130 indoor seats Garden café: 80 indoor seats |
|
Number |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
STRUCTURES |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
LANDSCAPE DESIGN |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![Top](../images/gotop.gif) |
STAFF |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Project ![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Consultant![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Project leader![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Competition phase: Françoise Raynaud Study phase: Françoise Raynaud, Didier Brault Site phase: Isabelle Guillauic, Didier Brault |
|
Design team![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Study phase: Frédéric Boilevin, Michel Calzada, Cyril Desroche, Sylvie Erard, Edwin Herkens, Gerd Kaiser, Roland Pellerin, Afid Rakem, Pierre Truong Site phase: Jalil Amor, Gian Luca Ferrarini, Laure Frachet, Nick Gilliland, Karine Jeannot, Freddy Laun, Jeremy Lebarillec, Philippe Monteil, Eric Pannetier, Florence Rabiet, Sophie Redele, Erwan Saliva, Andrès Souza Blanès y Cortès. |
|
Collaborators![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Study phase: François Xavier Bourgeois, Jérémy Lebarillec, Marie Najdovski, Bertrand Voiron Site phase: Aurélien Barbry, Frédéric Imbert, Jérémy LeBarillec, Sabrina Letourneur, Eric Nespoulous |
|
Art intervention![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Paddy Bedford, Michael Riley, John Mawurndjul, Judy Watson, Ningura Napurrula, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Lena Nyadbi |
|
Museum consultant![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Study phase: Reza Azard, Frédéric Casanova, Mia Hagg, Eric Nespoulous, Matthias Raash Site phase: Reza Azard, Jérémy LeBarillec |
|
Settings![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Michel Cova Mia Hagg, Eric Nespoulos, Cendrine Matthey |
|
Consultant for energy and environment![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Plastic models, rendering, visualization![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Etienne Follenfant, Jean-Louis Courtois (models) Artefactory (rendering) |
|
Facades consultant![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Green walls and roofs![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Graphic design![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Lighting engineer![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Yann Kersalé (outside) Observatoire N° 1 (museums) |
|
Acoustical consultant![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Systems![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
Construction management![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
Didier Brault & Pierre Crochelet René Bencini, Guillaume Besançon, Julien Coerdevey, Ghazal Sharifi, Marcin Woychechovsky |
|
Economic consultant![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) ![](../images/spacer.gif) |
![](../images/spacer.gif) |
|
|