OMA presents his proposal for the extension of a late 19th century industrial building in the heart of Paris to house different areas of production, creation and innovation for the Fondation D'Entreprise Galeries Lafayette.

The team led by Rem Koolhaas, OMA, presents his proposal for the extension of a late 19th century industrial building in which they insert a tower in the backyard, whose floors can move through a rack and pinion system. Is expected to be completed during 2016.

The pre-existing building will be cleaned, preserved and restored to its initial state according to the heritage rules applied to it. This is one of the most central areas of Paris, next to the Centre Georges Pompidou, in a neighborhood where artists and artisans proliferate.

Description of the project by OMA

A late 19th century industrial building will be refurbished for Fondation d'Entreprise Galeries Lafayette to house exhibition and production spaces, with a focus on creation, innovation and research. OMA proposes to insert an exhibition tower into the courtyard of the building in which two sets of mobile platforms will offer a large repertoire of spatial configurations; the programmatic flexibility provided will increase the potential of the existing building. A production centre at the heart of the site underpins the Fondation, while the ground floor becomes a passage connecting rue du Plâtre to rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie and hosts the public programs.

The site is located in Le Marais, in the heart of Paris, surrounded by artists, craftsmen, ateliers and workshops. This area, in immediate proximity of the Centre Pompidou, is one of the oldest neighborhoods of the city and its distinctive architecture is protected by a heritage preservation plan. The project is based around the renovation of one of Groupe Galeries Lafayette's historical properties - a former industrial building, erected in 1891 by the founder of BHV department store. The five-storey, U-shaped, courtyard building offers an elegant industrial façade on Rue du Plâtre, while at the rear a covered public passage provides access to the neighboring rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie.

OMA was commissioned in 2012 to transform the existing structure into a production and exhibition centre to host the Fondation d'Entreprise Galeries Lafayette, while respecting and preserving the building's heritage. The architectural concept was derived from the need for flexibility - a common requirement for cultural institutions - and from the restrictions applied to the site by the City Heritage authorities. During the design process, the area covered by the heritage preservation increased, limiting possible interventions. The consequence was an intensification of the architectural scheme.

The 19th century building will be fully preserved, cleaned and restored to its initial state, and a new exhibition tower will be inserted to fill the footprint of the courtyard (ca.100m²). The tower will feature two mobile floors that can each split into two unequal parts, thus creating four independent platforms. Using onboard motorisation, the platforms will move along a rack and pinion system, to align to the various existing floor levels. Accessible from the original openings onto the courtyard, the new exhibition spaces of the tower will extend and articulate the existing spaces; the mobile floors offer a new curatorial dimension, complementing the traditional use of the preserved structure.

Located in the basement is a production centre for the arts, a fundamental component of the institution, where invited artists conceive and build their projects. This, combined with the exhibition tower will trigger new ideas and new works; artists will develop projects according to a selected arrangement of the mobile platforms. The total area of the building is 2500 m2.

Text.- OMA.

CREDITS.-

Architects.- OMA.
Partners-in-Charge.- Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon.
Team.- Alejo Paillard, Clément Périssé, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and Maria Finders.
Concept phase.- Alice Grégoire, Barbara Materia, Francesco Moncada and Pietro Pagliaro.
APS & APD.- Adrian Auth, Alice Grégoire, Barbara Materia, Frane Stanic, Kenny Kim, Paul Cournet, Sofia Koutsenko, Thiago Almeida and Veselin Lozanov.
PRO.- Lina Kwon, Magdalena Stanescu and Yushang Zhang.
Modelshop.- Anastasios Siakotos, Emile Estourgie, Tijmen Klone, Tom Shadbolt and Yasuhito Hirose.
Collaborators.- DATA architects, Colin reynier, Léonard Lassagne, Edouard Guyard (local executive architect), Louis Choulet Ingénierie (HVAC, MPE), MWI Engineers (structure), dUCKS (scenography), Lamoureux Acoustics (acoustics), MPK Conseil Construction (fire safety, accessibility), Bureau Michel Forgue (costing).
Location.- 9 rue du Plâtre, Marais, Paris, France.
Status.- construction, completion estimated 2016.
Program.- Production center, exhibition spaces, light production spaces, pedagogic room, multimedia room, restaurant/bar, public passage and offices.

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Office for Metropolitan Architecture

OMA.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by ten partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, D...read more

KOOLHAAS

REM

KOOLHAAS

Rem Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam in 1944. He began his career as a journalist, working for the Haagse Post, and as a set-designer in the Netherlands and Hollywood. He beganHe frequented the Architectural Association School in London and studied with Oswald Mathias Ungers at Cornell University. In 1978, he wrote Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, which has become a classic of contemporary architectural theory. In 1975 – together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp – he founded OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). The most important works by Koolhaas and OMA, from its foundation until the mid-1990s, include the Netherlands Dance Theatre at The Hague, the Nexus Housing at Fukuoka in Japan, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Grand Palais of Euralille and Lille, the Villa dall’Ava, the Très Grande Bibliothèque, the Jussieu library in Paris, the ZKM in Karlsruhe and the Seattle Public Library.

Together with Koolhaas’s reflections on contemporary society, these buildings appear in his second book, S,M,L,XL (1995), a volume of 1376 pages written as though it were a “novel about architecture”. Published in collaboration with the Canadian graphic designer, Bruce Mau, the book contains essays, manifestos, cartoons and travel diaries.

In 2005, with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman, he was the founder to the prestigious Volume magazine, the result of a collaboration with Archis (Amsterdam), AMO and C-lab (Columbia University NY).

Koolhaas is professor at Harvard University, where he directs The Project on the City, a research programme on changes in urban conditions around the world. This programme has conducted research on the delta of the Pearl River in China (entitled Great Leap Forward) and on consumer society (The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping). Taschen Verlag has published the results.

Among the awards he has won in recent years, we mention here the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize (2000), the Praemium Imperiale (2003), the Royal Gold Medal (2004) and the Mies Van Der Rohe prize (2005). In 2008, Time mentioned him among the 100 most influential people of the planet.

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