A large, screened-glass volume designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, has been curved through a restricted city block in the middle of Paris.
The Pathé Foundation structure provides headquarters for an organisation dedicated to the preservation of the Pathé film legacy and the overall promotion of cinematography.
The new and refurbished buildings will house Pathé’s archives, exhibition spaces for temporary and permanent collections, a 70-seat screening room, and the Pathé Foundation’s offices.
From the street, a transparent volume, which looks something like a greenhouse, can be seen rising above the restored façades of the surrounding buildings.
The upper part of the dome is made of glass, providing natural light for the offices during the day, while being softly illuminated at night.
From inside the new structure, visitors can look through the transparent ground floor of the Foundation’s second building and out into the birch tree garden beyond.
Responding to the restrictions and needs of the city block site, the Pathé Foundation maintains a distance from its neighbouring buildings to allow them increased access to daylight and ventilation.
In addition to the new construction, the project comprised of the demolition of two existing buildings and the restoration of the façade facing the Avenue des Gobelins, including sculptural decorations done by a young Auguste Rodin.
Courtesy Designboom and Renzo Piano Building Workshop
