Musée Yves Saint Laurent, by Studio KO, celebrates couturier's work
20/10/2017.
[Marrakesh] Morocco
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech, by Studio KO is dedicated to the work of legendary couturier (located adjacent to the Jardin Majorelle -a 12-acre botanical garden that formerly belonged to artist Jacques Majorelle, but was bought and restored by Saint Laurent and Bergé in the 1980s).
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph by Dan Glasser.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
A marble presentation model of the Yaves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech.
Ground floor plan. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
First floor plan. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Roof plan. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Basement. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Sections. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
East and West elevation. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
North and South elevation. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Section auditorium. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Section auditorium. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Section detail. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Section detail. Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, by Studio KO.
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Studio KO, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, 2017. Photograph © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Yves Saint Laurent, Place Djemaa El Fna, photograph by Reginald Gray
Musée Yves Saint Laurent por Studio KO, Marrakech, 2017. Fotografía © Nicolas Mathéus, courtesy of Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Designed by Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty (from Paris-based Studio KO), the 4,000 sqm building museum features Moroccan influences, with intricate brickwork and other material such as glazed bricks, zellige tiles, granite, laurel branches and oak. It includes a main Yves Saint Laurent exhibition spaces, a hall for temporary exhibitions and the 150-seat Pierre Bergé Auditorium - in homage to the couturier’s companion and business partner, a boutique, bookshop, a cafe-restaurant, and a research library comprising 6,000 volumes.
The facade of the building appears as an intersection of cubes with a lace-like covering of bricks, creating patterns that recall the weft and warp of fabric. As with the lining of a couture jacket, the interior is radically different: velvety, smooth and radiant. Its exterior incorporates terracotta brickwork designed to recall the warp and weft of fabric, as well as curved and angular volumes in earthen-coloured terrazzo that the French architects said reference the "succession of delicate and bold forms that characterised the work of Yves Saint Laurent".
The facade of the building appears as an intersection of cubes with a lace-like covering of bricks, creating patterns that recall the weft and warp of fabric. As with the lining of a couture jacket, the interior is radically different: velvety, smooth and radiant. Its exterior incorporates terracotta brickwork designed to recall the warp and weft of fabric, as well as curved and angular volumes in earthen-coloured terrazzo that the French architects said reference the "succession of delicate and bold forms that characterised the work of Yves Saint Laurent".
"Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech combines two worlds that we are very familiar with and that are dear to our hearts: fashion and Morocco," said Studio KO. "Since the founding of our architectural firm, we have worked in this country that so inspired Yves Saint Laurent."
Its opening coincides with the inauguration of the new Yves Saint Laurent museum in Paris, which is located in the former fashion house and current headquarters of the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent.
Laurent first visited Marrackech in 1966 and remained enthralled with and inspired by until his death in 2008.
Bergé, said in a statement earlier this year: "When Yves Saint Laurent first discovered Marrakech in 1966, he was so moved by the city that he immediately decided to buy a house here, and returned regularly."
The inaugural exhibition is titled Jacques Majorelle’s Morocco, (October 19, 2017–February 4, 2018) and reveals the artist’s life-long passion for Morocco, his fascination for the beautiful and authentic medina of Marrakech, the surrounding rural areas, and the country’s medieval kasbahs. The exhibition has been curated by Félix Marcilhac.
The second exhibition, Noureddine Amir's sculpted dresses, will feature the work of the Moroccan couturier, Noureddine Amir (February 23, 2018–April 22, 2018).
The third exhibition, Garden of Memory, curated by Mouna Mekouar, will focus on the work of Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal and Robert Wilson (May 12, 2018–September 2, 2018).
"More that 50 garments, most never before seen, are displayed in an understated environment, which accompanies and underscores the work. An immense, luminous and radiating portrait of Yves Saint Laurent envelopes the garments," said Christophe Martin.
Christophe also designed the museum's bookstore, which is lined with lacquered amber shelving – the same colour as Saint Laurent's Opium perfume bottle.
More information
Architects
Studio KO. Architects.- Olivier Marty, Karl Fournier.
Dates
Hours.- Wednesday–Monday 10am–6pm / Opening of Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech.- October 19, 2017, 10am.
Collaborators
Scenography.- Christophe Martin. Landscape design.- Madison Cox
Interior design Le Studio Café.- Yves Taralon.
Main contractor
Bymaro.
Area
4,000 sqm (400 sqm exhibition hall; 700 sqm conservation area; 120 sqm temporary exhibition hall; 110 sqm café; 180 sqm garden)
Dates
Completed.- 2017.
Venue
Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech. Majorelle, Rue Yves Saint Laurent. 40090 Marrakech, Morocco.
Photography
Nicolas Mathéus. Dan Glasser.
Karl Fournier, Olivier Marty. Studio KO
Studio KO. Since meeting at the Beaux-Arts school of Architecture in Paris and the subsequent creation of their studio in 2000, Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty have applied their elementary assertion to every scale of their projects. Rooted in classical training, the duo asserts a global and immersive approach to their profession, from architecture to interior design and furniture design. At the heart of their approach is freedom without compromise and the need to create a unique narrative, the most in tune with the truth of the context.
Based in Paris and Marrakech, Studio KO creates contemporary public and residential architecture all over the world, inspired by the intelligence of places. Not confined to a grammar of styles or any systematic methods, the studio is defined by an attitude. An esteem for nature and existing cultures, the audacity of the broad aesthetic differences, and attention to craftsmanship and local skills, a permanent search for the rugged. For an architecture of oxymoron. Radical and archaic. An architecture with a sensibility that, from the foundations to the signature scent, reveals, without arrogance, its uniqueness and mystery.
At the beginning of each project, there is an encounter. Human, above all, from the initial conversation that takes place with a patron. Physical and sensory after, through the discovery of a site that imposes itself through its landscape and its social and economic fabric. Then comes the moment of dialogue between the elements and the experimentation with unknown territory. Working at the edge of archaeology leads architects to explore the site and its history in order to grasp its essence. This continued creative process allows Studio KO to find its way naturally. A prerequisite for the emergence of contemporary, appropriate and vivid forms.
Privileging primary and ancestral materials derived from the hand of man - stone, wood, metal, leather -, the studio creates spaces in constant tension. The purity of lines contrasts with the materiality of the textures, the rugged with the organic, the light with the dark, the sophisticated with the bare. The vernacular simplicity with a modernist spirit. The harsh and imposing exteriors of the private villas, mineral monoliths named with a single cryptic letter, contrast with sensual and transparent interiors that engage their proprietors in a symbiotic relationship with the environment.
Each of the projects lends itself to unique experimentation, to new encounters of textures, techniques and light. In a "here and now" that invites, relentlessly, the sensitivity and the humanity.
Based in Paris and Marrakech, Studio KO creates contemporary public and residential architecture all over the world, inspired by the intelligence of places. Not confined to a grammar of styles or any systematic methods, the studio is defined by an attitude. An esteem for nature and existing cultures, the audacity of the broad aesthetic differences, and attention to craftsmanship and local skills, a permanent search for the rugged. For an architecture of oxymoron. Radical and archaic. An architecture with a sensibility that, from the foundations to the signature scent, reveals, without arrogance, its uniqueness and mystery.
At the beginning of each project, there is an encounter. Human, above all, from the initial conversation that takes place with a patron. Physical and sensory after, through the discovery of a site that imposes itself through its landscape and its social and economic fabric. Then comes the moment of dialogue between the elements and the experimentation with unknown territory. Working at the edge of archaeology leads architects to explore the site and its history in order to grasp its essence. This continued creative process allows Studio KO to find its way naturally. A prerequisite for the emergence of contemporary, appropriate and vivid forms.
Privileging primary and ancestral materials derived from the hand of man - stone, wood, metal, leather -, the studio creates spaces in constant tension. The purity of lines contrasts with the materiality of the textures, the rugged with the organic, the light with the dark, the sophisticated with the bare. The vernacular simplicity with a modernist spirit. The harsh and imposing exteriors of the private villas, mineral monoliths named with a single cryptic letter, contrast with sensual and transparent interiors that engage their proprietors in a symbiotic relationship with the environment.
Each of the projects lends itself to unique experimentation, to new encounters of textures, techniques and light. In a "here and now" that invites, relentlessly, the sensitivity and the humanity.
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