The Louvre, a palace, a museum, a city
For the renewal of the Roman and Byzantine routes, we drew our inspiration from the three dimensions of the Louvre: the Palace, the Museum and the City. This vision reinvents the museum as a living city, where visitors and works interact in a fluid and continuous scenography. By thinking of the Louvre as a city, we create connections between spaces, incorporating moments for meeting and pausing, while taking into account the phenomenon of hyper-frequentation.

L’Escale Lapérouse, une escale culturelle et urbaine

Ce nouveau lieu culturel albigeois est un espace à la fois émotionnel et intellectuel, répondant aux enjeux contemporains tout en s’inscrivant dans une continuité architecturale et historique. Le projet s’inspire de l’idée d’une « escale », un point de repère dans l’immensité, une halte de repos et de rencontre, à la croisée de la mémoire et du renouveau urbain.

« Quand les vestiges auront disparu, il restera le musée ». Cette phrase, extraite du programme, est très forte. Elle dit bien les enjeux majeurs de ce projet que sont le souvenir, la connaissance et la transmission de cette histoire commune ainsi que notre devoir de mémoire au-delà de la disparition certaine des vestiges du port artificiel dans un futur proche.

Fruit d’une projection collective et d’un effort colossal déployé durant plusieurs millénaires, l’édification de ces monuments mégalithiques ne peut que nous interroger sur cette capacité à faire société et à être ensemble de nos jours. Elle comporte en elle une véritable générosité dans l’idée même de transmettre et de léguer à l’autre.
Notre projet s’est nourri de ces visites et des notions que nous en avons extraites, telles que celles de sol, de verticalité, de limite, de matérialité, etc. En les abordant sous l’angle de la dualité complémentaire, qui a nous permis de définir des registres architecturaux semblant s’opposer mais qui en fait se complètent, nous avons imaginé un projet à l’architecture directe et aux morphologies contrastées.

In the same way that since the 1950s we have been talking about the ‘conquest’ of space, we can also speak of the exploration of the abyssal depths. The courage and determination of the great explorers tells us about the considerable difficulty of diving to great depths. The new layout of the permanent exhibition pavilion at the City of the sea in Cherbourg echoes these extreme conditions. Our project deploys an entirely new visit from top to bottom, in a landscape in progressive transformation, simulating a descent into the depths. In this new visit, we have chosen to intertwine contemplation with hands-on experience and to alternate sensitive and playful approaches. Here, emotion and curiosity, awakening and understanding become one. The new fluidity of the spaces, made up of curves and slides, large open spaces and small cavities, are completed by the immersive force of installations such as the big fault, a real surprise in the visit. Luminous atmospheres, multimedia and large graphic panels generate interior landscapes in the scenography, enveloping the visit.

De par son implantation, son histoire et sa programmation, ce pôle culturel propose des déambulations à la fois urbaines, patrimoniale et culturelle. Son caractère convivial incite chacun à prendre le temps d’y flâner, de chercher et de découvrir, de se laisser surprendre. Un espace que l’on a plaisir à parcourir sans aucune retenue est un espace que l’on s’approprie avec facilité. Afin de ne marquer aucun seuil entre l’espace public et l’intérieur, le sol extérieur se prolonge dans les espaces d’accueil. Le décollement de toiture matérialisé par un ensemble d’épines profondes en plaques épaisses d’acier thermolaqué confère une nouvelle identité au pôle. Plus on s’en approche et plus apparaît distinctement une large brèche horizontale dans la partie droite de l’immeuble. A l’intérieur, la cour-patio constitue l’interface évidente entre les constructions anciennes et l’aile contemporaine. De nombreuses entités programmatiques s’ouvrent sur cet espace central et profitent d’un éclairage ample et indirect.

Il y a à Berlin une limite ambiguë entre nature et artifice, entre géographie et architecture. Selon un certain point de vue, on peut considérer ces reliefs comme des architectures.
Selon ce même principe d’extrapolation, l’immense bâtiment linéaire de l’aéroport de Tempelhof, de par sa morphologie et son échelle, pourrait alimenter ce rapport ambigu entre nature et artifice, entre architecture et géographie.

La parcelle du projet est constituée de trois îlots, chacun étant défini au sol par une composition et un programme propre à lui.
A l’intérieur de la parcelle du projet, les venelles publiques sont surmontées ponctuellement de ponts habités, un principe souvent utilisé dans l’architecture najdi. Les ponts permettent de fédérer les trois îlots à l’étage. Traversant de part en part le bâti et enjambant les venelles, ils créent à l’étage, une continuité programmatique.

L’environnement exceptionnel du Haras forme une richesse patrimoniale qui n’est pas l’apanage de tous les sites. Tels que nous les avons identifiés, les principaux enjeux de la reconversion de l’écurie, concernent la difficulté d’identification du musée sur ce site à haute valeur patrimoniale, la mutualisation de la gestion des visiteurs au sein du pavillon d’accueil, la flexibilité optimale des aménagements scénographiques afin d’imbriquer l’exposition temporaire et le parcours permanent. Face à ces enjeux, la principale notion abordée est celle de la limite. La porosité entre le musée et le Haras impose une évolution de la séquence d’entrée. L’extension est un volume longitudinal et relativement transparent. Elle connecte les deux entités existantes, le bâtiment d’accueil et l’ancienne écurie. Les espaces d’expositions temporaires s’inscrivent au cœur de l’exposition permanente dans l’ancienne écurie, modifiant de manière cyclique les limites programmatiques.

Le paysage environnant est un élément constitutif fort de l’Airborne Museum, car il porte en lui la mémoire du 6 juin 1944. Il participe à la vocation didactique et mémorielle du musée. Nous souhaitons d’avantage en tirer profit, en entretenant un dialogue permanent entre le projet architectural et son contexte, entre la scénographie et le site, entre la collection exposée et ce paysage.

L’écriture porte en elle une dimension intime tout autant qu’un pouvoir d’évocation qui ne se dément pas avec le temps. Ecrire n’est pas un geste anodin. Malgré l’apparition des nouvelles technologies et de la dématérialisation des données, un attachement continue de se créer à l’objet d’écriture grâce auquel on laisse une trace.

Dès lors, comment ne pas être inspiré par la marque Montblanc ? Son histoire est synonyme d’audace, d’innovation et de savoir-faire. Elle continue de s’écrire au fil du temps avec la même élégance. Ses trois fondateurs ont su porter leurs idées jusqu’au bout. La constance avec laquelle leur vision marque les esprits à travers le monde depuis 1906 est frappante.

These proposals are taken from a more global study defining the AlUla master plan, commissioned by RCU (Royal Commission for AlUla) and AFALULA (Agence Française pour le développement d’AlUla). Winner of an international competition, this study carried out in 2020 by a group of designers and engineers, brought together by the landscape designers of the Ter Agency. In this group, Projectiles was in charge of the design of all the typologies and architectural guidelines.
The production presented herein is an extract of this work which synthesizes the architectural research. It is presented here according to two sets: agglomerated typologies, the category “villages” and scattered typologies, the category “Dialogues with the rock”.

The reconstruction of Mosul, a martyred city, must be carried out according to a process that values the role of the citizens in the established process, requiring the reappropriation of intimate and collective territories. The project is a large public space, a breath of fresh air in the midst of great density, a place that is both unifying and unusual, peaceful and lively, intimate and open, at times a place of meditation, at times an agora.

Sensory Odyssey réinvente l’exposition scientifique en créant l’Expédition Spectacle, un parcours sensoriel grandeur nature au cœur des écosystèmes de notre planète. Conçue pour une déambulation libre des publics à travers plusieurs milieux naturels, l’installation immersive et interactive allie la projection en très haute définition de contenus impressionnants de réalisme avec un ensemble d’effets visuels, sonores et olfactifs pour une expérience intense et complète.

The extension stands out clearly in the urban landscape through its monolithic appearance, without going against the adjoining buildings to which it is attached.
The stone of the old buildings is matched by a textured, strong coloured, roughcast concrete. In a way, the implementation of this contemporary minerality reconciles change and continuity.

There is no passive body. The visitor is part of it. Either to participate actively in the devices, often involving his whole body or to be in confrontation with the exhibited bodies of the athletes. All the tools are designed on the scale of the body and continuously solicit it. As a stadium, the exhibition is full of light. A white and robust sheet of light gives the identity of the space, creates a ceiling and amplifies the colours.

Ancienne résidence royale, le château de Villers-Cotterêts a subi de nombreuses transformations tout au long de son histoire. Il conserve cependant quelques vestiges de son riche décor d’époque Renaissance. La restructuration du bâtiment a été confiée un l’architecte en Chef des Monuments Historiques, Olivier Weets, et l’atelier projectiles est en charge de tous les aménagements intérieurs ainsi que la scénographie du parcours permanent.

The architecture of the Medusa exhibition consists of a series of juxtaposed places. In strict linearity, the exhibition leads the visitor through heterogeneous spaces and successive interior landscapes until they complete the visit and return to the starting point.

We opted for a strong architectural language to design this salon that can be seen from the street through a huge bay window. At the foot of Montmartre, in the rue des Martyrs, two shops have been added in an isolated building. The roof was demolished and the site excavated conserving the historic walls to create a unified volume for an atypical hairdressing salon.

The team complementary and understanding of the challenges faced by the project management made it possible; to be the winner and, above all to rethink the site of the Rue du Général Buat in Nantes. The purposes of Music and Dance in Loire-Atlantique and the Grand T, open up to the new artistic, cultural, urban and civic practices of its time.

We contact us to consider the rehabilitation of a 400 m² art gallery within the Lafayette Galleries. The particularity of the space lies essentially in its connections to the outside. Two different entrances lead to the place: one from the Galleries, the other directly from the street. The area also has an outward-facing façade with horizontal windows.

This project is located in the commune of Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière in Hérault, less than 800 metres east of the historic village centre. 

The exhibition returns to the sources of tattooing and presents the renewal of this phenomenon in its now permanent and globalised manifestation. In so-called “primitive” societies from the Oriental, African and Oceanian worlds, tattooing has a social, religious and mystical role and accompanies the subject in their rites of passage, including them in the community. Conversely, in the West, they have been seen as a mark of infamy, criminality, a circus attraction (with the phenomenon of side shows) and as a mark of identity for urban tribes. During the first half of the 20th century, tattooing developed within marginal circles and remained a somewhat clandestine sign until being over-exposed by the media. Today, publicity and fashion take inspiration from these codes. Today, this geographical and antinomian approach is disappearing: in traditional societies, tattooing has lost its ritual exclusivity; in urban societies and in the “westernised” lifestyle, its marginal character is fading and it is becoming a relatively common bodily ornament. 

The garden is composed of three distinct types of layout.

Creation of a perfumer’s workshop in Grasse for International Flavors & Fragrances

Man’s relationship with the Cosmos is a subject inherent to a visit to the planetarium’s spaces. Approached in a transversal way, it is the guiding thread: from the point where I am, from what constitutes me, from the planet Earth that carries me, what I see and do not see, what I feel and sense, by what and by whom can I learn, understand and appropriate this knowledge?

With its extremely rich heritage, the pumping station is an archetype of the industrial architecture of the early 20th century. Its design expresses the idea of a true prototype.

Located at the end of Quai Joliette 4, the building is linked to Fort Saint-Jean by a slender footbridge. Visitors coming from the fort reach the interior spaces by taking a peripheral ramp in the continuity of the footbridge. It is a real walk between land and sea that we wanted to call the Mediterranean path.

The aim is to reconvert a covered market of the Baltard type. Located between the tramway station and future office blocks, it will become part of the daily route of thousands of business people. The market makes its presence felt: it is an invitation to stand still, to curiosity; it is an obstacle and a provocation; it tends to slow down the endless flow of hurrying commuters. The windows of the roof are etched with a flight of butterflies. A symbol of the value of life and time, which pass by so quickly, the butterflies send a daily message to the office workers.

Symbol of Nazi destructive madness, the gigantic dome of Helfaut, a 55,000-tonne monster, is one of the most impressive remnants of World War II. In 1997, this singular place converted into the Second World War Museum of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.

A large dimension is, in our view, the best way to contain the proliferation, of a confused appearance, of varied architectural elements. These architectural layers can be made comprehensible to all, thanks to an aesthetic of accumulation, assembling elements from different periods, similar to what can be seen in religious architecture. Moreover, height confers visibility on the building and by extension makes the ambitious aims of this project comprehensible.

The interdependence of the different scales, territorial, local and architectural, as a factor of connection. Time as a factor of environmental management through the implantation of dense afforestation that will set up relations with the immediate environment and connect the site to the departmental network of tree-planted spaces. This afforestation brings a sense of inwardness that welcomes and unites architectural diversity.

Nous envisageons d’occuper la totalité du site disponible. Cette occupation au sol limite la hauteur de l’équipement et nous permet d’éviter les phénomènes d’encaissement et de vis-à-vis. Sans être un sol, la toiture définit un nouveau niveau de référence pour le cœur d’îlot. Cette toiture se déforme générant une topographie qui intègre les différents espaces et ménage des éclairages zénithaux, des vues latérales ainsi que des possibilités de prise et de rejet d’air. La toiture ne constitue pas seulement un abri pour les espaces intérieurs. Elle (sup)porte un jardin d’herbes qui semble se faufiler et occuper les différents interstices de la parcelle. Ce jardin n’est pas praticable mais offre à l’ensemble des habitants du cœur d’îlot la possibilité de vivre dans un milieu naturel.

The project offers a variety of housing typologies, and each house’design allows for the spatial expansion that is easily adaptable to family development.

This extension, which houses an artist’s studio, is located at the end of the plot. The implementation of the project is the result of the synthesis of numerous technical and administrative constraints: the state of the ground and the respect of urban rules (limited ground area, setback imposed about the existing building and regulations linked to the size). Thus, the volume obtained is the maximum possible built volume that can.

For the requalification of the Banks of the Seine, we propose a set of architectural interventions composed of superimposed terraces, overflowing from the upper quays onto the lower quays, sometimes onto the Seine itself. Paris is one of the densest cities in Europe. The open space of the Seine is a ribbon of decongestion where urban bustle is diluted in the immensity of the horizon.

The grain silo in the town of Louvres is a striking architectural structure. It is an involuntary monument that is no longer in use. It is a space of paradox, in the centre of the city, but at a remove from the inhabitants. It is attractive for its grandeur and its aesthetics, but repulsive for its massiveness and its disturbing silence. The project reverses the perception of the silo via two interventions, by exploiting its partially hollowed-out architectural structure for an unusual vertical urban walkway and by creating a seed-bed for associative micro-activities in the second part of the building that includes, among other things, a cooperative restaurant. The architecture has thus been popularised and made less monumental through these new uses.

The project to restore the Hôtel de Biolley began by a selected demolition of all the buildings and additions carried out for speculative reasons in the 20th century. The Fine Arts section was initially to be located in the existing body shop building, but for the above-mentioned reasons, we preferred to place it in a new location at the end of the available land.

The imprint of man shapes the landscape and the landscape changes human nature. These two movements of reciprocal influences define the way in which the sequences are set out.

The layout concept of the first sequence is an attempt to represent the artistic and creative abundance of the period by setting up a landscaping device blending the idea of a forest of luminous tree trunks with a series of wooden houses called “Dachas”, scattered over the entire area. The spatial concept of the second sequence has a dual nature. There are two distinct areas.

The comic strip expresses man’s desire to invent parallel worlds, imagined and imaginary, sometimes with a critical look at our own reality. By associating the richness of the word with the expressive power of drawing, the comic strip becomes a powerful medium. Political in the sense of polis, the artistic territory of the comic strip is eminently linked to that of the city.

The upper extension is divided into two separate volumes. The first, 7 metres high, corresponds to the future second and third floors of the house and is located at the street level. This part contains two levels of bedrooms (two per floor). It leans up against the building on the ground floor at number 20, rue Thibouméry, in a certain way extending its parapet level.

Miles Davis, whose popularity goes well beyond the public of jazz lovers, has established himself as one of the great masters of silence, perpetually using a certain class and casualness as the foundations of his style. Always, there where it is not expected, he feels the urge to stray from his objectives as soon as he finds the means to achieve them.

Today, tower architecture is a field of experimentation in the field of energy in its own right: sensor membranes, solar panels, fluid controls, light diffraction, the firefly effect, monumental lighting for the city, etc. Towers are real supports for experiments in energy capture and diffusion.

For the first time at the Musée du Quai Branly, an exhibition has occupied the entire 2,000 m2 of the temporary exhibition space, opening fully onto the museum garden and so establishing a strong dialogue between the exterior and the interior. The exhibition presents works of art and documents that chronologically show the relationships between jazz and the graphic arts throughout the 20^th century.

Developing Paris-Plage on the Bassin de la Villette is an opportunity to “walk on water”. The scenographic proposal sets a series of floating stages that we have called “the islands of desire” in homage to Wim Wenders. The quays of the Seine near La grande bibliothèque stands out with its towers and monumental staircase visible from the banks of the Seine. One can hear perfectly the traffic of the expressway on the other side of the Seine and the wall of the park of Bercy reflects the noise of cars. The analysis of this second “Histoires d’ombres” site leads us to propose a structuring scenography, whose scale of elements is proportional to those of the site. It also leads us to diversify the layout by creating protected and internalized areas so that one can isolate oneself from the outside hustle and bustle.

One of the main characteristics of the project is to preserve the character of the existing building as much as possible, both as regards the façades (in brick or plaster) and the roof (in Roman canal tiles). The extension is hidden behind the existing building. It appears as a surprise. This location also offers an unhampered view on the landscape from the daily living spaces (kitchen, dining room, living room) situated in the new building. The entrance is located in an in-between space: an empty space between the existing building and the extension.

The principle is to offer an empty, horizontal, perennial space: a simple excavation in the topography of the ground where the program’s “boxes” are placed. They stack up in time. This still new accumulation defines an evolutionary partition: adjustments, additions, programmatic modifications. Up to the vertical explosion, up to pushing the roof, up to changing the profil architecture. Variable verticality. The choice of an evolutionary museum, the option not to fixer future forms of the building, is to consider that it is from the heart, from the “middle” that everything grows. It is articulated around a thought of discretion.

The exceptional environment of the Stud Farm forms a rich heritage unique to this site. As we view it, the main challenges of the conversion of the stable concern the difficulty of identifying the museum on this site of high heritage value, the pooling of visitor management within the reception pavilion, the optimal flexibility of the scenographic arrangements in order to interlock the temporary exhibition and the visit of the permanent collections.

The inaugural exhibition at the Musée de l’Homme “Chroniques d’une rennaissance” (Story of a renaissance) is an intimate introspection in three parts, with the history of the museum since its closure in 2009, its origins and its collections, and finally, its history to come, in the form of an “alphabet” containing its future themes.

The entire exhibition’s visit is immersed in a dizzying and colourful profusion of illustrations of natural species. They are on different scales, from the real to the imaginary, printed on cut-out panels based on their shapes.

The space is divided up according to a territorial logic. Centred on a herd of cattle. Four peripheral and autonomous walls define the exhibition’s timeline. They present the history of agriculture in Texas chronologically, integrating graphics, object niches, screens, soundtracks and visual openings onto the central space.

The architectural intervention we propose is a kind of continuity rather than a rupture. The aesthetic confrontation that is deployed will allow the different elements to enhance each other. Inspired by the existing volumetric proportions and scale, we have chosen to challenge the initial request by dividing the programme into two separate small buildings with a more contemporary expression.

Located in Paris, but on the other side of the ring road, the lot for this project is at the junction between two antagonistic territories. How then can the fragility of the people accommodated be reconciled with the brutality of the site, creating an oasis of peace and tranquillity on the edge of the ‘Péripherique’. In short… the great divide.

It all started with this woven ceiling and its electric blue lights and, on the other, this immediate reference, a mental image imprinted on our minds since childhood: Tron, which borrows the aesthetic codes of the first video games, whose graphic universe, although refined and minimal, exudes extraordinary strength.

According to the historians Horden and Purcell, the fragmentation of the Mediterranean area into ‘micro-regions’ has played a key role in the interactions that have taken place in the Mediterranean over the course of history. Their thesis can be summed up in three words: ‘Diversity in uniqueness’. 

Decongesting the main entrance to the Louvre: regaining a museum identity

The idea of depth is omnipresent at different scales of scenographic intervention. At the landscape scale, the refusal of spatial partitioning reinforces the depth of field of the visitors’ points of view. The omnipresence of the horizon in scenographic landscapes considerably enhances the midst of the spaces. Finally, on the scale of the body, depth is part of the constitution of the envelopes of the scenographic furniture.

The exhibition layout offers a gradual transformation of the three-way relations between the visitor, the content and the form, through the three successive stages of the exhibition. The content is mainly sculptural, and the space brings together the relations to the body. In the first sequence, objects are displayed on large luminous slabs that are raised off the ground. The visitors, surrounded by these slabs, criss-cross the space and discover a unique treasure exhibited chronologically: they set out on “the march of time”. The body, the sculptures, the ground… the desert…the horizon. 

The Mobility exhibition space is an open space. It is an area that the visitor identifies not by its limits but by the formal familiarity of its components and by the ground on which all the installations rest. It is a fluid space. It would be like pinball balls describing Brownian movements and bouncing from one apparatus to another. The movement of the visitors is a major component of the scenography. We thus named this space: ‘The Pinball’.

Artistic creation in the broadest sense can be understood as an open and complex stratagem in which there is an unceasing and reciprocal exchange between the different disciplines.

Saint Laurent Church is a timeless place. The clearly identifiable juxtaposition of strata of historical buildings procures a unique and singular emotion. Here the 6th century, 8th century, 12th century and the 20th century exist side by side.

The scenographic project is at one with the architecture. It proposes constant dialogue between the interior and exterior through visual cues. The floors of the exterior extend into the interstices of the interior, at time creating rich ambiguities between the exterior and the interior.

The Small Ducks nursery (Les Petits du Canard) is located on the ground floor of a recently refurbished residential building. It is divided into two distinct parts linked by a longitudinal gallery passage way.

This operation, located in the heart of the La Muette district in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, may seem overloaded with constraints and standards to be respected. The constraints are indeed very numerous. However, it is a unique project that we hoped would be meaningful.

Claude Langmann, known as Claude Berri, French director, screenwriter, producer and actor; he is nicknamed “the last mogul” or “the godfather of French cinema” ; he is considered one of the great directors (Tchao pantin, Jean de Florette/ Manon des sources, Je vous aime) and film producers (L’Ours, Bienvenu chez les Ch’tis…). He was also president of La Cinémathèque française from 2003 to 2007.
Claude Berri was also an avid lover of modern and contemporary art, to which he dedicated the Espace Claude Berri in Paris…

Following a preliminary study in defining the project, we proposed a clearly visible layout of the existing plot in strips, from which variously shaded resting areas are interspersed. The land that was formerly uncultivated, designated as a green space by the inhabitants of the district, will be laid out on the principle of a communal garden. The gallery, which is slightly recessed from the other buildings, is a space with a concrete slab roof with coloured glass openings. The roof is covered with vegetation. The gallery can accommodate various activities as well as temporary constructions for festivals, exhibitions and screenings. It is both an area of activity and a threshold that can be crossed to reach the large lawn in the heart of the block.

L’atelier des Capucins in Brest (The Capuchin workshops) are beyond the architectural scale. It is a territory, a form of a closed city, even if it is well covered.

In the same way that since the 1950s we have been talking about the ‘conquest’ of space, we can also speak of the exploration of the abyssal depths. The courage and determination of the great explorers tells us about the considerable difficulty of diving to great depths.

The new museum is in a position to become a hybrid public space due to its location in the city, its size and shape. The ancient wall that has survived through the centuries could become the medium for an original urban stroll, bringing relaxation, observation and an understanding of a whole area.

The former site Blast Furnace, known as U4, located in Uckange take over by the luminous and monumental work of Claude Lévèque in 2007. Today the local and regional authorities are launching new modifications to the park that take into account its industrial and artistic history, and are centred on experimental cultures.

In Pärnu, nine floating structures moor during the summertime. They are concrete shells, topped by collapsible aluminium structures supporting an inflatable reinforced membrane, which allows to free the inside space and host a wide range of events: exhibitions, concerts, screenings, and so forth.

A museum is a space for the gathering of creative forces. It is an environment in which a sum of ideas and thoughts, concrete or abstract, cohabit. It is a landscape, an archipelago emerging over the horizon, or the opposite, it is clearings in a forest, each sheltering something unexpected.

The adaptation of the programme developed on a flat surface with a building on two elongated levels, led us not only to work horizontally, but also to look at the space in its entirety.

Seguin Island is a territory in its own right. Constructing a 500 m2 building on the island – a drop in the ocean – raises questions about the relevance of a contextual urban approach.

We do not think that the extension of an historical piece of architecture should be understood as a call to imitate the original, to pure reproduction or to the sacred preservation of a site’s heritage. On the contrary, our aim should be to probe the architectural dialectic between the historical and the contemporary.

Today, the city is composed and recomposed internally rather than continuing to spread outwards. The history of our cities is nourished by the history of the buildings that give them their structure. “In renewing the existing patrimonial architecture, and while respecting the existing architecture, our aim is to strike a balance between highlighting the architectural heritage, respecting the functions of the different parts and facilitating maintenance at the lowest possible cost.” This global, coherent approach is present throughout the progressive definition of the project.

The project exists, quite intentionally, as part of the promotion of intergenerational blending of the different age groups living on the site. The dialogue between the two operations in progress and the quality of the spaces outside (a possible meeting place) will help reach this goal.

The forecourt, the promenade , the square, the courtyard, are classic typologies of urban hangouts for cultural buildings. We wish to change the status of these assiociated spaces by internalizing them. As a forecourt, a garden located below the Ringg forms part of the continuitity of the hall. A large shaded area, visually extending the ground level of the side alley, protects this space. Then, at the top, the building presents a variety of outdoor spaces accessible to visitors, reinforcing the feeling of fusion between the MAC and it’s environment.

As an echo of the existing urban discontinuity, the insertion of buildings, characterised by parcelling and porousness, is typified by gaps and raised areas, maintaining perspectives on the hills, as well as cross-ways views between the public space and the interior of the site, between the car parks and the landscaped areas.

Concerned about the environment in which this project is located, we have sought to integrate the specific character of this site as a major component of our architectural design.

The conservation of the SERNAM hall opens the debate on the question of the city’s soil and its topography. Continuing to build the railroad tracks beyond the Avenue de France, seems to us to be detrimental to the necessary continuity to be ensured between districts.

Crossbreeding is the child of modernity. It is now at the heart of society. It is in the people, in the homes, in the language, in the practices. Often we are no longer even aware of its presence. This exhibition is an opportunity to identify the ingredients of crossbreeding to reveal a mechanism, that of modernity, among others.

We decide to “open the volume to the world” by positioning as an interface a space with possible programming. In this place, a whole series of events marked by current events can take place, like the front page of a daily newspaper: exhibitions, conferences, educational activities, debates, meetings, openings, etc.

Permanence and mobility
Immigration is a phenomenon of population movements. It is a never-ending story. A priori a permanent exhibition seems to be contradictory with the very nature of immigration. So what can be considered as evolutionary in this permanent exhibition?

The space that we have conceived is one that is distinguished from the rest of the museum through its content. It is an unusual place, where a collection of heterogeneous objects will be brought together. It is a space of curiosities, of illustrated anecdotes, of delirium and imaginations sometimes expressed with a child-like simplicity. The works of the graphic arts space invite the visitor to come closer.

The wooded countryside landscape is characterised by an unusual division of the land. The surfaces of each plot of land, resulting from agricultural use, define a measurement unit of the area. This project allows us to reinterpret this agrarian unit in volume. The site of the Flers project is a firmly enclosed area.

House of Algeria – City of Paris International University (CIUP), is the encounter and the cultural blending of “World cultures” around a park, the whole forming a gateway between Paris and the suburbs. For us, building the House of Algeria on such a site assumes a particularly powerful symbolism. We fully subscribe to the philosophy with which the CIUP approaches the project: the search for an emblematic contemporary architecture that explicitly reaffirms and renews the original ideals of the CIUP.

This exhibition presents a viewpoint of the behaviour of mankind in the environment. A method is developed to measure the traces left by mankind on the planet: the ecological footprint. Alternative solutions are put forward to diminish the human footprint, such as developing services to decrease consumption.

Sensitive structures in a dense green space.

As imagined by the client owners, the bookshop-boutique of the Musée du Quai Branly extends far beyond its original function. It offers visitors a wide and diversified range of books, while fulfilling its primary vocation as a place to sell books and related products. This heterogeneity requires a strong and specific spatial identity that unifies and federates the diversity of objects.

Ce projet constitue un véritable renouvellement de l’identité, du statut et du fonctionnement de la station de bus du Château de Vincennes. En tant que la première Ecostation de la Ville de Paris, ce projet nous a fortement interrogé sur la démarche à adopter. Cette opération va en effet marquer une nouvelle étape dans l’évolution de ce site hybride et singulier, entre la ville et le bois.

La mission consiste à aménager un espace de repos et de détente au cœur de la zone administrative de la philharmonie de Paris.

We ask Joachim Le Pastier (among other critics from Les Cahiers du Cinéma), to write: “Trois fictions pour le Grand Louvre” (Three novels for the Grand Louvre). These three novels to be part of the Projectiles design and layout’s competition in the reception and mediation areas of the Louvre.

It was a close call!
Imagine building a city in the district of La Muette, which in time will become a dangerous cut-throat to be kärcherised. Without the constant mobilization of courageous residents, the situation would undoubtedly have become unbearable in this haven of peace located not far from the Trocadero square. But what exactly is it all about?

“Poetic dwelling” is poetic cartography of Algeria, conceived by the poet Michaël Batalla, on the occasion of the competition carried out by Projectiles regarding the construction of the “House of algeria” on the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris. The poems, inscribed on mosaics, are scattered throughout the student rooms. The animation opposite explains the poet’s approach.

This project by the artist Eric Stephany is part of the rendering of the architectural competition concerning the conception of the permanent exhibition “Landmarks, at the museum of the History of immigration.

” Paysage Maintenant ” is a video installation directed by Michaël Batalla and Pascal Valty, based on an original idea by Michaël Batalla and Reza Azard. This video, in the “Changing Era’s exhibition” proposed at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, explores a universe of horizons on which poetic lines are superimposed.

The ensa-v invites Projectiles to participate in the project “Sémantique parallèle*, glossaire prospectif d’architecture” (Parallel semantics*, prospective glossary of architecture) which is, in 2010, the subject of an exhibition at the school and a publication.

The triennial of the Estuary, a summer event of contemporary art created by the team of the Lieu Unique in Nantes, invite the studio to work on an artistic installation.

How to get to know the Lodève Museum?  The photos freeze this project which the Projectiles workshop sees as an experience to be lived. The Museum of Lodève, restructuring and extension (2011-2018) is a 3’50 mn film she is developing and which is directed with José Alcala.

As part of a monograph project, the author Rafaël Magrou worked on the definition of the Projectiles studio.

Le Lieu Kimméridgien doit devenir un lieu polyculturel et intergénérationnel et accueillir de nombreux visiteurs au sein d’une simultanéité d’activités. En mettant en récit le collectif, l’intergénérationnalité. Sa relation au territoire est fondamentale et nous souhaitons le rendre parfaitement lisible dans son contexte.

Le musée d’histoire maritime de Saint-Malo est conçu comme « un musée dans les airs », un musée-belvédère, une icône-observatoire. C’est un nouvel emblème au cœur de la cité qui s’étend sur un site multiple. La muséographie conçue par Projectiles dialogue avec l’architecture de Kengo Kuma and Associates et son territoire immédiat et lointain. Elle déploie la collection selon une graduation d’ouverture vers la ville, de haut vers le bas, du plus ouvert au plus immersif.

Depuis l’angle avec la rue de Tolbiac, on distingue un bâtiment en R+5 dont la partie supérieure effectue une rotation vers l’intérieur de la parcelle. Plus on avance vers la parcelle et plus on perçoit les deux derniers niveaux implantés suivant deux retraits successifs non parallèles au plan de façade inférieur. Les percements sont larges et hauts. Leur implantation s’inscrit d’une certaine manière en continuité avec celle des immeubles alentour.

Lancement d’un vaste programme de restauration et de modernisation, ou comment gérer un nombre croissant de visiteurs sans pousser les murs ?

 Concevoir la scénographie d’un tel musée est une expérience originale. Au delà de la dimension esthétique et visuelle de son contexte étroitement lié à l’univers du luxe, la dimension poly-sensorielle du parfum convoque une médiation inédite dans le monde de l’expographie. Le parcours tel que nous l’avons envisagé regroupe une somme d’expériences uniques dont certaines ont été conçues et formalisées ex-nihilo selon une première phase de conception qui a consisté à décrire et spatialiser des situations insolites sans avoir défini l’environnement architectural.

Évoquer la Modernité et la propagation de ces idéaux à Venise, qui plus est au sein d’un bâtiment comme le pavillon français à l’architecture si particulière, nous interpellent forcément en tant qu’architectes et scénographes. Cette présentation pose la question de l’identité mais aussi de l’impact de la représentation française au cours de cette 14^ème biennale.

C’est l’histoire des cowgirls depuis ses origines à nos jours où cette notion s’élargit et se définit à travers des femmes qui ont contribué au progrès de l’Ouest américain. Inscrit au cœur du quartier culturel de Fort-Worth, l’institution voisine quelques chefs-d’œuvre architecturaux dont Le Kimbell Art Museum de Louis Kahn, l’Amon Carter Museum de Philip Johnson et Le Modern Art Museum de Tadao Ando.

Le projet s’inscrit dans la vallée de la Vézère, nommée « Vallée de l’Homme » grâce à sa richesse en gisements préhistoriques. La grotte de Lascaux, située dans la colline homonyme, près du village de Montignac, représente le plus emblématique des sites préhistoriques de la région. L’emplacement du projet se trouve aux pieds de la colline.

La scénographie séquencée en plusieurs chapitres dont le point commun est le désir d’émerveiller, est associée à l’audace de la compagnie théâtrale UBU dirigée par Denis Marleau, une animation audiovisuelle des visages d’une trentaine de mannequins. Des vidéos projetées « parlent » et plongent les visiteurs dans une dimension multimédia hors du commun.

Inventer de nouvelles relations à partir de situations existantes, faire éclore une dialectique architecturale entre différentes époques : est-ce cela être contextuel ? Sans doute, si du moins l’on se réfère à la racine latine du mot, contextere, qui signifie “tisser des liens”. La tension entre ancien et nouveau, entre patrimoine et architecture contemporaine, peut alors s’avérer fascinante.

Toute la démarche du projet pourrait se résumer à cette recherche d’un vernaculaire contemporain, d’une architecture qui a prise avec le quotidien, qui accueille les usages les plus ordinaires, qui spatialise les rythmes humains.

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

Bien que présent dans son environnement, le projet n’est pas ostentatoire. L’unicité de son revêtement traduit notre volonté d’apporter à l’ensemble un caractère d’élégance et de sobriété ; elle est aussi le moyen de contenir une diversité typologique de logements.

En mai 2009, nous avons été contactés par MD. C’est un menuisier. Un homme curieux, avec un esprit ouvert. Collectionneur d’art, passionné de bateaux à voile, il nous a confié la maîtrise d’œuvre d’un ensemble de bureaux en extension de son atelier.

La scénographie des Albums des Jeunes Architectes et Paysagistes (AJAP, anciennement NAJAP), est confiée à chaque édition, à l’un des lauréats de la cession précédente. C’est ainsi que Projectiles, lauréat des NAJAP cession 2005-2006 a été désigné pour concevoir le projet 2007-2008.

Les qualités morphologiques du site sont indéniables. L’implantation morcelée des constructions génère une série d’entre-deux particulièrement intéressants pour la conception des nouveaux espaces de l’Ecomusée.
La nouvelle entrée de l’Ecomusée s’expose davantage sur la ville, en invitant à y pénétrer de manière plus évidente. Cette extension plus visible marque également l’apparition d’une nouvelle identité architecturale sur le site, symbolisant le renouveau de cet équipement.
Les constructions neuves bénéficient du même traitement architectural et privilégie la transparence de leurs enveloppes. Cet apport contemporain et contrasté par rapport à l’unité minérale du site permettra aux différentes constructions de se révéler mutuellement.

La forte minéralité du site fédère l’hétérogénéité bâtie des constructions : elle agit comme un liant structurant. Les parois extérieures de l’extension font corps avec le tissu urbain. Epaisses et enduites de manière artisanale, elles lui confèrent une identité catalane forte. Dans cet environnement très dense, le musée semble quelque peu engoncé et manquer de lisibilité. Une séquence contemporaine et plus transparente a été sobrement intercalée au sein de la continuité minérale des façades. Depuis l’avenue Georges Clémenceau, les espaces du musée sont désormais visibles. L’extension fait signal et contribue à marquer d’avantage la présence de l’art dans la ville. Le principe de diversité morphologique des espaces d’exposition a également été poursuivi dans l’extension de manière à prolonger ce qui constitue intrinsèquement l’ADN du musée.

Les datas sont indispensables à l’homme moderne mais sont pour la plupart invisibles. Elles sont innombrables et non quantifiables. Face à cette complexité, nous avons choisi une posture radicale et à fort potentiel émotionnel. Un parcours où le visiteur se trouve propulsé dans le monde parallèle et infini de la donnée. La pièce est tapissée de toiles miroirs créant un horizon infini, un espace insaisissable. Au centre, une seule écriture : des tables aux plateaux lumineux de mêmes dimensions, organisées en système orthonormé selon une trame lisible. Cet ordonnancement se prolonge dans l’abîme des miroirs parallèles, à l’image de l’installation d’Andrea Branzi, “le monument infini”.

La mise en scène de l’espace principal emprunte l’image d’une forêt dense où les différentes séquences de l’exposition sont nichées dans des cavités, à l’intérieur de poches lumineuses. Le visiteur glisse le long des parois souples et courbes, constituées d’alignements de cordes suspendues. La vision en profondeur se fait au travers de faibles interstices. Les images brouillées de loin, sont offertes au visiteur, une fois les parois franchies. L’espace global est entouré d’une paroi d’images en mouvement qui projettent leurs lumières colorées sur les lignes verticales et torsadées du cordage. Ainsi, les différentes séquences de l’exposition, la forêt, la célébration, la plage, la ville et le foot ont chacune une atmosphère lumineuse et sonore propre qui se mêle partiellement dans l’espace interstitiel central. Pour renforcer la dimension commune de cet espace, une sonorité propre sera créée entremêlant subtilement les 5 atmosphères spécifiques. Dans la galerie, des amas cordes colorées aux couleurs des jeux de Rio, forment des pains de sucre suspendus tête-bêche. Ils délimitent des espaces thématiques.

Une longue fresque vidéo se déploie en périphérie du parcours. Elle est composée de nombreuses images de compétition (fixes et animées) issues de différentes époques. L’ensemble des sources est mis à la même échelle afin de sentir l’existence d’un continuum. Une paroi sombre et réfléchissante fait face à la grande fresque lumineuse qui semble se dédoubler. Le visiteur est ainsi plongé au cœur de ce dispositif. La visite de l’exposition devient une expérience poly-sensorielle. Cette peau rigide, que l’on peut traverser en différents points, renferme des alcôves. Ces poches d’atmosphère feutrée, présentent l’envers du décor et décortiquent les modalités ayant conduit, J.O. après J.O., à la fabrication des images. Une grande liberté caractérise la composition de ces espaces intérieurs ; leurs formes courbes et accueillantes favorisent une certaine intimité avec les contenus présentés et les dispositifs interactifs.

Le musée Lorrain de Nancy possède une collection d’une grande diversité quantitative et qualitative, typologique et artistique. L’une des stratégies majeures du schéma directeur que nous proposons consisterait à placer le musée au cœur d’un réseau d’institutions lorraines afin de fédérer et renforcer la cohésion de l’offre culturelle de la région. Le musée Lorrain serait le centre d’une « toile culturelle », grâce à la diversité et à l’ampleur de sa collection, à la fois historique, sociétale et artistique.

L’aéroport de Tempelhof est un symbole. Son histoire et celle de Berlin sont indissociables tant elles ont été jalonnées par de grands événements au 20ème siècle. Il est également un archétype en termes de conception architecturale. La réouverture prochaine de l’ancienne tour de contrôle marquera une nouvelle étape dans la reconquête de ce monument berlinois. L’entrée dans le bâtiment fait réapparaître la structure originelle des arcades en béton. Augmentant la transparence et la luminosité, cette intervention améliorera la circulation des visiteurs vers le 6ème étage qui regroupe l’espace d’exposition, le café et la boutique, puis vers la terrasse où les attend un panorama sur la ville. Afin de créer un lien fort entre les différents niveaux, nous avons rapporté une matière unique sur les volées et les paliers d’escaliers ainsi que sur le sol de la terrasse. Le soir, grâce à un éclairage intégré, la tour de contrôle sera visible de loin et apparaîtra tel un phare permettant de s’orienter dans la ville.

Le musée Lorrain de Nancy n’est pas un bâtiment, mais un territoire ou cohabitent des constructions d’âges variables. Cet ensemble articule différents tracés urbains, celui du moyen âge, de l’époque Stanislas et du 19è siècle, le tout autour d’un parc boisé. La nouvelle extension se place le long de ce cœur végétal, au milieu du système. Elle intègre l’accueil du musée, les expositions temporaires et l’auditorium. L’ensemble du projet constitue une hétérogénéité assumée que nous qualifions de « ville-musée » où chaque édifice reflète une part de l’histoire de la ville, intègre une fonction spécifique ou présente un espace majeure caractéristique.