Kengo Kuma won the the competition “Albert Kahn - Musée et Jardins”.

The project for the connection of the historic and the new, the Kengo Kuma's proposal for the "Albert Kahn Museum and Gardens" employs a reinterpretation of the singularly japanese "engawa", a transitional space between interior and exterior, to weave together the built form and the idyllic greenery of the western parisian landscape. The delicately folded shape emphasizes the corner site while allowing access to the gardens via semi-open spaces.

Albert Kahn was a 19th century french banker who amassed an cultural archive from around the world. The four hectares of gardens in Boulogne-Billancour are horticultural models from a range of countries. With minimal interventions into the landscape, the first level will house temporary exhibitions and a shop while the park-facing second floor will be generously glazed for optimal views of the perfectly preserved gardens. The defining architectural gesture is the use of screens with alternately dense wooden battens that act as both shading device and dynamic envelope. The project will start in 2015 and is expected to be completed by 2017. 

CREDITS

Developer.- Conseil General des Hauts-de-Seine.
Site.- Boulogne Billancourt, Département des Hauts-de-Seine, France.
Main use.- Museum.

The renovation project.-

- The total floor area of ​​4,600 m²
- A new building of 2300 m² of floor space and nine other buildings to be renovated. Height.  3 pisos por encima del suelo (según proyecto)
- Expansion of exhibition space and creating a reference path
- Rationalisation of collections conservation areas
- A 120-seat auditorium
- A 60-seater restaurant and a tea room with 30 seats
- Preservation of existing gardens
- Recreation greenhouses lateral palmarium
- Evocation of a Zen garden
- € 26.7 million invested by the General Council (value 2011)
- 30 months of work (2015/juillet January 2017)