We located the extension incorporating the museum's new reception area at the end opposite the current entrance. The space formerly at the rear of the building thus becomes the entrance area for visitors. Facing the Dickies Arena, the new reception area sits at the bow of the extension, extended by a small park whose layout has been adapted to the new configuration. The extension also features a new boutique and, above all, new exhibition spaces.
The large gallery on the upper level is connected to the existing exhibition spaces, yet has its own identity, reinforced by the presence of a carousel designed specifically for the project. The carousel is positioned at the bow of the first level, cantilevered over the museum entrance. It is visible from Dickies Arena and the museum grounds through a large bay window. It thus acts as a signal element at the museum entrance.
The long extension is a prefabricated concrete building. Its entire periphery is crowned by a bas-relief frieze depicting the decomposition of a galloping horse, inspired by early chronophotographs, notably those of Etienne-Jules Maray.
The decomposition of movement transcribed into bas-relief was a complex and delicate aspect of the facade, requiring several stages of design and fabrication. We asked Eric Anton of the Arte FactoryLab studio, a specialist in computer-generated images, to create a gallop by decomposing the movements of a quarter horse, first filmed, then vectorized in 3D to create the molds for the concrete casting.
We then created a series of one-scale prototypes, to define the right grain size, texture and color of the concrete. The challenge was to create a concrete with a certain mineral presence, an expressive materiality, while retaining maximum detail of the horse's body so as not to detract from the beauty of the movement.
