Article source: Bruno Gaudin Architecte DPLG 

An architecture of distribution

Armed with the finalized assessment, it became clear that a major axis of the architectural part of the project would have to be a reorganization of the distribution. Thus, new principles of distribution had to be defined in coherence with the larger architectural ensembles that structure the geography of the site.

Installed over the centuries and according to need, the site counts some some thirty more or less discontinuous existing staircases. However, their important number did not indicate a genuine distributive space but rather a random organization in a succession of commissioned pieces, passing from one gallery to another, from a reserve to a reading room, with nothing in between; all the interstices having been filled up under the pressure of the constant requirements for additional surface areas.

Image Courtesy © Takuji Shimmura

• Architects: Bruno Gaudin Architecte DPLG
• Project: Restructuring Of The Richelieu Site
• Location: 58 rue de Richelieu – Paris 75001
• Photography: Takuji Shimmura, Marchand Meffre
  
• Client: Ministry of Culture and Communication, Ministry of National Education – Higher learning – research and innovation
• Delegated project management: Operator of patrimony and cultural real estate projects of (OPPIC)
• Architects of Record: Atelier Bruno Gaudin & Virginie Brégal
• Chief Project Architect: Raphaële Le Petit with Guillaume Céleste, Céline Becker and Nicolas Reculeau
• Lighting engineer/designer: L’Observatoire 1 (Georges Berne with Emmanuelle Sebie)
• Technical engineering firm: EGIS bâtiments

(more…)