Architects:Bernard Desmoulin Architecte

Area :900 m²

Year :2018

Photographs :Michel DENANCE, Célia UHALDE

Manufacturers :  Lafarge Holcim, AF2M, Lefevre, sammodeLafarge Holcim

Lead Architect :Bernard Desmoulin

Other Participants : Scoping, Venathec

Collaborators : Jeremy Vogl, Malo Chabrol, Christian Dagand

City : Paris

Country : France

Located in the historical center of Paris, Cluny Museum is the museum of the Middle Ages and thermal baths and gathers fragments of a history of Architecture that begins in the first century AD. The last piece added to the composition dates from the 21st century. The old entrance of the museum was inadequate to the intended restructuration of the museographic spaces and to properly welcome all kind of public. This new visitor center, therefore, provides services and comfort naturally expected from such an important National Museum.

Gently approaching the impressive figure of the Roman thermals, the new volumetry relies on a historical compression. Acting as a catalyzer, it embraces the different space and time layers and generates a scenario that gives back to the Museum its prevalence on the street. The purpose of the intervention was to provide the site with an additional glow with the least impact on the existing structure. Playing with the dichotomy between the presence and the absence of the new fragment, it smoothly creates a fusion between the incoming and the ancient stories. Against this substantial background, the project appears as “a ring on its finger”, announcing to the passersby a new vitality and pursues the beautiful idea of a Roman city-building upon itself.