The Louvre Lens architecture : behind a museum,
a building
The transparency
and minimalistic style used by SANAA architects is not unanimously recognized.
If most of the newspapers and specialised magazines are approving the choice
maid by the French government, the building is also a subject of criticisms,
mostly developed by architects.
In the aim to give a different approach to this major
building in museum's architecture today, we will present first the SANAA's
architects, their main projects and compare these last ones to the Louvre Lens
building. Then, we will try here to give a short analyse about the different
levels of symbolism, which are composing the Louvre Lens museum. Finally, we
will propose a neutral comparison between the positive and the negative points
of the Louvre Lens 's architecture.
In the aim to justify the elements and the point of
view used in this article, a few elements are confirmed in different websites.
You can find it here :
About the SANAA's architects :
About the architecture's symbolism and the negative
points of the building
I. Behind the project : the SANAA's architectural firm
Created in 1995, the group is composed of two main
architects :
- Ryue Nishizawa, Japanese, is graduated of Yokohama National University since 1990. As
an independent architect, he worked only on buildings situated in his natal
country. But, as member of the SANAA's firm, he had helped in the creation several
projects all around the world.
- Kazuko Sejima, Japanese too, graduated of Japan Women's University since 1981.
Quickly, she founded an architecture's cabinet (the Kazuyo Sejima and
Associates, in 1987), where she worked on project mainly situated in Japan too.
She was appointed director of the architecture sector of the Venice Briennal in
2010, which a prestigious achievement, not only because of the nomination, but
also because she was the very first woman selected for this position.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentine_Gallery_Pavilion_2009.JPG |
The minimalism in
the building, the search for a certain purity through the materials chosen like
aluminium and glasses, the fact to play with lights in the aim to decorate the
museum and without elements of decorum is recurrent into both architects'
creations. In fact, if we take a look at their creations, we can notice the
main presence of squares or cubes, glasses, space and minimalism.
Both the
architects had worked on several museum projects, most of them dedicated to
Contemporary Art. If we examine this last type of buildings, we can find a lot
of elements in common :
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| http://blog.japantwo.com/2012/01/26/4594 |
For example, the glass pavilion is particularly
praised as a wonderful architectural element of the Louvre Lens, in fact this
project is the current conclusion of several similar constructions. there is a
glass pavilion into the Septentrine Gallery of London , but also at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, United
States. The minimalistic architecture is a remanent theme in
the SANAA's production too. Here you have a picture of the 21st Century Museum
of contemporary Arts, situated in Kanazawa between 1999 and 2004. And the New Museum of Contemporary Art of New York,
built in 2007, where the use of cubic modules is usd in the aim to create a
particular type of building.
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http://guidepal.com/new-york/see--do/new-museum-of-contemporary-art |
II. Behind the minimalism, a building full of symbols.
The Louvre Lens
Museum had been created by two architects, Kazuyo Seijima and Ryue Nishizawa.
Even if both of them are japanese, they take their influences and inspiration
from French, American and Japanese contemporary Architecture. The building,
even if minimalistic, is full of symbols :
- even if the museum is a local satellite, the design
team chosen is not only composed of the two famous architects, but also of
members from New York, London and Frankfurt. In fact, we can consider the
building as an international accomplishment.
- the five wings are outstretched, not only in the aim
to integrate them into the landscape, but also in the aim to create a reminiscence
of the Louvre situated in Paris. Effectively, this last one is composed of
five departments : Islamic Arts,Antiquities, Sculptures, Medieval Art and
Modern Art .
- five wings, each one dedicated to a very specific
employment, more particularly in the aim to allow a specific place for the
local history and culture . They will be exhibitions of local Art, Classic
and Contemporary, with a regular renew.
- The "park", in the aim to respect the local
Natural environment, is fulfilled with rare and local plants, most of them
re-discovered with the help of the slag heap's typical flora. In the aim to
respect the place chosen for the building, no artificial garden or already
grown plants had been used. The park will not only give the impression to be
created by Nature's hands, it will really be natural. The only elements created
by Man's hands will be the road, the sitting places, the statues exhibitions
and a few flower pots, integrated to the earth's level.
- The facades of the building are merely entirely
composed of glass, in the aim to separate as few as possible the
visitors from the landscape. It is not only corresponding to a new type of
museum's architecture, it is also corresponding to the need to put in value
the region. It is still hard to say if the emplacement had be chosen in the
aim to create à link with the pinhead n°9, now monument classified as an
International Heritage by the UNESCO. Effectively, there is no way to know if
the place had been chosen because of the decision of the french ministry of
Culture to propose the site of Loose en Moselle to the UNESCO since 2004.
Nevertheless,
the museum is proposing different ways to enlighten the local Heritage. It
include a few symbolic decisions to remind discretely to the visitors the
national dimension of the museum, with a regular renew of the Louvre's
masterpieces and in the construction of the building itself. As far as we know
from personal experiences, even the car park problem, well known in Paris, had
been accidentally reproduced : the lack of car parks seems to already cause a
few problems to the Louvre Lens visitors.
III. Behind the museum : an experience influenced by many parameters
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| http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/france/louvre_lens_museum_t141112_3.jpg |
As we have said before, the museum is subject of both negative and positive critics. Let's have a look at some of them, more particularly the architectural choices made by SANAA's team.
First,
the Museum amongst Lens' habitations :
Effectively, the fact that the building is
flat, composed only of a ground floor and underground floors, is really helping
to have the impression that the museum is well integrated into the landscape.
But, a simple photography of the global aspect of Lens today, can, on the
contrary, enlighten the difference between local architecture and the museum
architecture : a place made of metal and glasses, in the middle of red houses,
typical from the worker's area built in the 19th – 20th. is
a bit unusual and particularly visible, even a bit out of tune.
Second,
the main interest of the building, the play with light, seems to be a great
idea, not only in the aim to highlight the natural local Heritage and to create
a parallel between the indoor and the outdoor. But, we must not forget that we
are here in the North of France, a place place well known for it's regular sunlight.
On the paper, and most of the time, the museum looks like this :
Unfortunately, during cloudy days, and rainy
days, the museum can possibly looks like this :
Which is increasing the sensation to be in a
shed, or a cold, dehumanized place.
It can provoke the sensation to be in a
surgical room, where nothing but the strict necessary is within reach. This
type of architecture might be adapted for a contemporary exhibition, but the
fact is that we are habituated to see classical exhibitions in a very old
fashioned monuments, presented with a coloured scenography.
The Time gallery is also as purified and
minimalist as the hall, very certainly in the aim to focus the visitor's
attention to the masterpieces only. Even if the walls are slightly curved, in
the aim to contrast sharply with the possible impression given by the gallery
to be in a shed, the purity of the design still can provoke a certain sensation
of comfortability.
Here is a detail of the curved walls :
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| http://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/france/louvre_lens_t111212_8.jpg |
And here, a picture that can explain the
comparison with a shed or a surgical room :
You can notice the coldness brought out by the
us of metal on the walls and the use of only one colour for the scenography :
As you
can notice, the metallic walls are reflecting the visitors, as mush as the
masterpieces. The main idea was to create a physical link between them, in the
aim to bring visitors to a reflexion about themselves and Art. Moreover, as we
can see on the picture bellow, is the idea is good, the reality might be a bit
different :
As you can see, the reflexion is particularly
blurred, and according to people who had already visited the Time Gallery, it
is not only because this picture had been taken with a smartphone. The blur is
real, transforming people and masterpieces into shadows and ghosts.
If you combine this sensation with the form and
material used for the Time Gallery, it is perfectly explainable that some
people haven't got the impression to be in the Louvre satellite, or even worse,
that they feel ill – at – ease.
As a
conclusion, we can remind that the Louvre Lens museum is inscribed into a very
new approach of stage design, presented in a contemporary building. It is
effectively a new way to propose Art to visitors, nearly an opposite way from
the Louvre's stage design. Several types of greeting can be maid about this
approach, composed of different degree of positive and negative criticisms. The
only way to have your own is very certainly including a visit of the Louvre
Lens itself !
As a
funny digression and conclusion, we can remind an unknown and negative aspect
of the Louvre Lens, enlighten by the École du Louvre 's students on their humorous network tumblr :
NATHALIE MAES.
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