FRAC Ile de France
An ambiguous urban site : the intersection of two ground levels, that of the allée d’Ivry, and that of the avenue du Général d’armée Jean Simon; a dense urban context without any hook to an adjoining wall.
The project’s premise has to be found in the intersection of two urban dimensions: the first one is in the length of the plot, with the axis of the allée d’Ivry and the accordance of the two ground levels ; the second one is transversal to the project, with the design of an urban sequence between the avenue de France and the Seine, with an urban stair, the soffit of the project and a landscape park to the river.
Two inner diagonals : a longitudinal one, from the permanent exhibition to the courtyard ; a transversal one, for the penetration of the light deep in the project.
The museum and its double : junction by the void of a suspended exhibition space and the burried archives, thick plinth of the project.
Then the courtyard - or garden : it has a spatial function, to distance elements, making alternately the building and the city foreground and background.
On one hand, the permanent exhibition’s design is an attempt to make coincide a vertical development - museum itinerary with balconies, dilatation, compression with a spatial « layer system » - space neutrality and modulability.
On the other hand, the permanent exhibition is a stair in the light, made of large landings, serving as exhibition spaces.
