Gallery of the History of Château de Versailles

The Palace of Versailles houses the largest history museum in the world. It is one of the most visited establishments in France. More than 3.5 million visitors per year visit the château, i.e. 11,000 visitors per day who pass through the 700 m² History Gallery, a must-see part of the public tour.

Here, spatial history has been written layer after layer... with a new one to come.

THE CHICAGO ATHENAEUM MUSEUM FOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN MUSEUM
Laureate, International architecture prize, 2014

Gallery of the History of the Palace in Versailles « Making Of »
In partnership with Google Cultural Institute

The gallery's project aims to display the history and evolution of the castle to the general public, defined by a succession of construction periods, revealing a considerable force that led our sovereigns to the absolute quest for grandeur and refinement. Layer after layer, a history has been written. The concept we have proposed is based on three elements that structure the visit:

A new skin
Room after room, a white skin in acrylic stone (Corian) engraved in gradations from top to bottom unfolds, supporting all the pictorial works of the gallery.

Luminous blocks
The cantilevered blocks are extrusions of decorative mouldings of the preserved wooden bases. They are supports for objects or texts on the works. They form a distancing for the paintings.

Massive and translucent chandeliers
Luminous blocks that function as chandeliers, are suspended in the middle of each room. Their dimensions are architectural and interact with the scale of the rooms.

The components of the museographic layout of the history gallery

The Walls of the halls
A new contemporary skin has been applied to the existing walls. It is engraved with a pattern in the upper part. By reducing the depth of the engraving, from top to bottom, the pattern disappears. Sanded on the spot, no joints are visible. The motifs are specific to the period treated in each room (in partnership with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs) and reinterpreted to adapt perfectly to the size of the rooms. The museographic hanging area extends into the smooth part, above the panelling.

The chandeliers
The chandeliers are suspended in the centre of the rooms.... With a monobloc appearance, and of the same nature as the walls, these volumes give scale to the space. The delicately luminous underside gives a soft character to objects. All of the room's atmospheric lighting fixtures and those of the museography are integrated into the space between the suspended ceiling and the ceiling. Video projectors are integrated within some of them.

The distancing blocks
The rectangular surfaces integrated into the relief design of the panelling appear as if extruded by the Corian blocks, whose backlit upper side supports all the texts and legends of the works in the room. The blocks manage the distance between the works and the visitors. The upper face of the blocks is autonomous and removable, allowing the renewal of the museographic signage. Fixed through the panelling, the blocks are cantilevered and give the impression of floating in space.

The blocks in the centre of the Rooms
Massive pedestals in the centre of the rooms dedicated to the works of art, placed on the floor at right angles to the chandeliers, support all the objects in the Gallery. Sometimes, depending on the objects on display, these blocks incorporate glass bells.

The Multimedia Rooms
Three multimedia rooms punctuate the visit. The facilities of the first two rooms are similar. The chandeliers in the centre integrate all the video projectors projecting large images onto the walls of the rooms. The system set up in the final room is different. The installation of the lift has led to a significant reduction in the surface area of the room. As a result, this space is in the spirit of an antechamber at the end of the journey, a sort of epilogue. The back wall integrates a series of screens on the same level, at the bottom, and several luminous surfaces at the top.

Project
Fitting out the Gallery of the History of Château de Versailles

Location
France, Versailles

Tender
Public

Surface
700 m²

Team
Projectiles, architect + scenographer (project manager)
Change is good, graphic design
Abraxas concepts, lighting design
Bureau Michel Forgue, Construction Economist
Noble engineering, fluid

Client
National Park Domain and Palace of Versailles

Stage
COMPETITION 2010
CONCEPT DESIGN 2011
CONSTRUCTION 2011 → 2012
IN USE 2012