Bookshop-boutique of the Quai Branly museum

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.

horizontal layers

The layout we propose develops a hybrid concept at the crossroads of two spatial archetypes: that of the shop and that of the museum.

An ‘open window’ on to the world

A manifold territory

This museum is not just a building. It is a territory made up of diversity, a multi-faceted architecture whose crossing gives a reading in successive and continuous mutations through very contrasting atmospheres, without being partitioned by a well-defined border. It is like crossing a country rich in geography. In fact, this territory does not have the same architectural interpretation depending on whether you look at it and whether you access it from the Quai Branly or the Rue de l'Université.
The bookshop area is located along the rue de l'Université, on the southern part of this territory. This area is dominated by an apparently calm architecture, but which contains in its thickness an aesthetic richness organised essentially in horizontal strata. The stratified sculpted finishing of the façades of the so-called University building and the southern façade of the museum are reinforced by the interior presence of a succession of Aboriginal paintings drawn on the ceilings of the different levels. The temporary exhibition space, known as the Garden Gallery, also has a façade organised in horizontal strata.
The bookshop is located on the ground floor of the building. It alone constitutes one of the strata of this area and in a way, is its base.

A bookstore-boutique like no other

As imagined by the Arteum team, the bookshop-boutique of the Musée du Quai Branly goes far beyond its original function. It offers visitors a wide and diversified range of books, while fulfilling its primary vocation as a sales outlet for books and related products.
The articles define a lively, joyful and aesthetic universe composed of monographs, photographs, postcards, jewellery, home accessories, fine arts, toys, stationery and comestibles.
This heterogeneity requires a strong and specific spatial identity that unifies and federates the diversity of objects. The layout we propose develops a hybrid concept at the crossroads of two spatial archetypes: that of the shop and that of the museum.
Hybridization takes place through a layered composition. Inside, the lower strata evoke the space of the bookshop-boutique while the upper stratum highlights a set of specifically chosen and staged items.

The first stratum contains storage drawers and, occasionally, seats. The two intermediate strata juxtapose a series of densities of various kinds, placed in the shelves on the periphery or on the base in the middle of the space. The upper stratum offers a selection of items, each with its own setting, in the manner of the multiple scenographies of the boxes on the museum's façade.

An ‘open window’ on to the world

From the outside, the individual layers are concealed behind a single material. This thickness envelops all the interior spaces. On the Rue de l'Université, a multitude of openings offer visual fragments from the inside. These bays are all associated with brass support brackets hung on the envelope, which are displays for sample items.
On the garden side, the low wall is lined with a series of pedestals for other reference items. The whole envelope is an open showcase. Its height is adjusted so as to preserve a minimum of privacy while allowing the view to advance from the inside towards the garden or the street, thus defining a singular horizon.

Project
Redevelopment of the bookshop-boutique of the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac

Location
France, Paris 7e

Tender
Private contract

Surface
270 m²

Team
Projectiles, architect + scénographer (project manager)
Abraxas concepts, lighting design

Client
Arteum services

Stage
CONCEPT DESIGN 2015
CONSTRUCTION2016
IN USE 2016