WRITER: ELLIE STATHAKI
rchitects often talk
about lexible buildings, interiors that can
easily adapt to diferent needs, ready to
accommodate several functions. But you’d
be hard pressed to ind one that took the
meaning of this as literally as Rem Koolhaas’
practice OMA did in its most recent project
in Paris, its irst inished building in the
French capital.
Faced with a 19th-century industrial
structure on a relatively modest site in the
Marais, and a brief from Fondation
d’Entreprise Galeries Lafayette to create
an art centre it to host three to four annual
shows, plus performances and workshops,
the architects approached the design with
a truly open mind. The result, Lafayette
Anticipations, is a ‘curatorial machine’ of
a building, with an adaptable interior that
gives spatial lexibility a new meaning.
‘Paris is replete with prestigious
collections, yet no place is absolutely
dedicated to the work of artists or to the
production of their pieces,’ says Guillaume
Houzé, president of Fondation Galeries
Lafayette. ‘There was thus an opportunity
to establish, in the heart of the city, a
toolbox giving creators the chance to
uncluttered, while transforming the
courtyard at its heart into a glass ‘exhibition
tower’ composed of four mobile platforms.
‘We were asked to accommodate an
institution that ofers carte blanche to
artists in a building entirely protected by
heritage regulations,’ says OMA project
architect Clément Périssé. ‘Only a machine
could solve this. By inserting a moveable
mechanism into its courtyard, the only
space open to intervention, we activated
the entire existing building and gave it the
potential to serve this ambitious project.’
The gallery now spans 2,200 sq m and
includes 875 sq m of exhibition space, as well
as production workshops, visitor engagement
areas, an organic, vegan, gluten-free café-
restaurant, and a store, within one beautifully
composed, well-oiled ecosystem clad in
timber, concrete, anodised aluminium,
galvanised steel grating and limestone.
The gallery’s holistic vision also allows
for artwork to be made on site, with its
facilities open to professionals from a wide
variety of disciplines, including fashion,
design, visual arts and performance.
Referencing the opening show by
American artist Lutz Bacher, Houzé says,
‘Numerous pieces presented in the show
will have been produced in the Lafayette
Anticipations workshop. Here, the diversity
of the artists and their work will encourage
new opportunities for spatial cohabitation
within our modular environment.’
oma.eu; lafayetteanticipations.com
Turn the page for proiles of 15 of our next-level
architecture practices. See Wallpaper.com for
the full Architects’ Directory ∫multiply their capacities and actions,
prompting the emergence of new forms and
ideas, then sharing them with the greatest
number. Within the 9 rue du Plâtre building,
OMA made these aspirations a reality.’
In order to achieve this, OMA completely
gutted the existing structure (built in
1891 by French architect Samuel Menjot de
Dammartin for Xavier Ruel’s Bazar de l’Hôtel
de Ville), keeping the interior simple andABOVE AND BELOW, AT THE HEART
OF THE ART CENTRE’S EXISTING STRUCTURE
IS A GLASS AND STEEL EXHIBITION TOWERArchitects’ Directory
∑ 105