The task was to restore and expand the museum complex with the maximum use of the potential of existing structures - the neo-Romanesque Palace of Dobre of the 19th century (built by the philanthropist Tom Dobre who founded the museum) and the mansion de la Touche of the 15th century, surrounded by a park of 1 hectare.
Perrault envisioned the reconstructed historic buildings to become a "center for exhibitions" and a "center of thought" with classrooms, an auditorium with 200 seats and a new museum lobby, to be "encrusted in the ground." The sun's rays will penetrate there through the glass ceilings, which will provide visual contact between the interior and the outside space. From the park, however, these ceilings will look like a "mirror water surface".
Another center will be created - "restoration and research", which will be located in a renovated building of the 1970s. To give it a formal resemblance to the historical buildings of the museum, it is planned to veneer it with the same local stone that was used for their construction; however, the asymmetrical arrangement of window openings will immediately give out a modern structure in it.
The renovation project with an initial budget of 35 million euros is planned to be completed by 2015.
The Dobre Museum is mainly devoted to European archeology from the Ice Age to the Carolingians, but also has an extensive collection of works of art, medieval manuscripts and early printed books, etc. Its ancient Egyptian collection deserves a special mention.
