In all cities with a historical center, sooner or later the question arises: what to do with the heritage? As a rule, architectural monuments are given a "second life", and they receive a new function - or even several. At such a moment, with very few exceptions, a sharp contradiction arises between the intended and existing uses. For obvious reasons, you have to do redevelopment, carry out reconstruction, in general, by hook or by crook try to prepare the building for life in a modern rhythm. It should be noted right away that it is difficult to do this correctly from an objective point of view, and therefore very few architects succeed, and even a small percentage of successful renovations usually remains controversial.
I note right away that it took me time to understand and evaluate the project that I want to tell you about today. I walked around this building for a long time, looked at it from different angles and studied the accompanying materials in detail. It wasn't love at first sight at all. The Milan school with a compulsory course of reconstruction and restoration left an indelible mark on my mind, and I meticulously noted to myself that, for example, because of the creation of a new facade, obvious visual disturbances appeared in parts of the historical facade. In general, against the background of the overall positive impression, I still had doubts that I wanted to sort out.
The architect who made the project for this renovation is wonderful
Francis Soler. He is a special master, and understanding his work always requires a certain intellectual preparation, since they always combine philosophical meaning and unusually interesting concepts. But, unfortunately, it is for these reasons that his projects often remain unrealized, and Jean Nouvel (whom I also love very much) wins his competitions - speaking, perhaps, with less profound, but more understandable to most proposals.
However, in this particular competition - for the new building of the Ministry of Culture and Communications in Paris - Soler nevertheless won. The French Ministry of Culture, previously scattered across seventeen districts of the city, decided to build a new headquarters for itself in order to gather all its departments in one place. And the place, of course, was chosen perfectly: in the very center of the city, on the territory of the former revolutionary part of the Palais Royal, in the immediate vicinity of the Louvre and the Comédie Francaise. On the site provided to the ministry, there were two buildings in different styles: the first - in 1920, the second - in 1960, not connected in any way. The earlier building was designed as a backup warehouse for a large department store in the Louvre, while the second building served as an annex to the Ministry of Finance, then occupying the north wing of the Louvre. The task of the competition was to unite these buildings into a single structure: with a common structure of transitions and levels, with convenient layouts and a harmonious external appearance. Considering the huge difference between the two buildings on all counts, this task was like instructing Cinderella to separate the peas from the lentils. Although there was also an ideological subtext: the Ministry of Culture? This means that it should combine different styles and values, consider all epochs as equally important and, in general, show with the architectural solution of its headquarters that the basis of culture is harmony.
Soler's first action was quite radical: he made a gap in the wall of one of the buildings, arguing that the offices that were planned from the side of the Bon-Anfan street, due to its narrowness and darkness, will not have enough light. Despite the boldness of this step, everything turned out well, because even today there is very little light on this street, and if you imagine for a second how dark it was here before, Soler's approach seems to be the only correct one. The materials preserved from the wall were distributed by the architect, as far as possible, along the perimeter of the resulting courtyard. A very pleasant garden was laid out in this courtyard, which became a great alternative to a narrow, dark street.
Before proceeding with the development of plans, Soler studied the thickness of the walls, the depth of buildings, reduced the size of the inclined ribs and eliminated everything that, from his point of view, protruded outward for no significant reason. As a result, it became possible to merge two buildings relatively painlessly with each other, connect floors located at different levels, and create comfortable workplaces.
The main entrance was from the busy rue Saint-Honoré: it is a spacious hall with a low ceiling. There is also a staircase similar to those usually found in large historical department stores. Before the restoration, it was in a deplorable state. The glass façade has been replaced by sliding windows, and the offices are open plan spaces throughout the entire depth of the building, without any partitions.
After the redevelopment, the central space of the building turned into a service area, and the rest of the premises were connected to the garden due to the simplification of the perimeter. It should be noted that the architectural design of the interior areas is based on the pre-existing structure with minimal changes. At the same time, the architect created spaces with the most flexible geometry. The new plans for the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture seem convenient and appropriate and, in principle, leave no questions, which cannot be said about the rather controversial solution of the facades.
Francis Soler completely covered the walls and roofs of the convertible buildings with a stainless steel net. The ornament is reminiscent of Hector Guimard's art nouveau designs, but Soler himself says that computer-scaled frescoes by Giulio Romano from Palazzo del Te in Mantua were used in the grid structure. It turned out to be such a fun transition to contemporary art by simplifying history with the latest technology. Modular mesh elements are of the same size along the entire perimeter of the building, excluding the courtyard with the garden.
Actually, it was this grid that gave rise to my doubts. It looks very impressive and attractive, even - from certain angles - creates a haze effect. In addition, it does not formally harm the historical facades: they have been restored, but have not been changed in any way. However, again, from certain angles, these modules split the facade into visually disproportionate parts, which does not seem entirely correct. It was also not entirely clear how the ministry employees feel, since the grid pattern is very rich and, as it seemed to me, can be annoying when viewed from inside the building. Agree, not everyone likes to spend a working day, periodically looking at the steel weave instead of the view outside the window.
However, my opinion about the inconvenience of the grid for users of the Solera structure subsequently changed. It turned out that it works on the principle of openwork window bars in Arab architecture: it skillfully hides the interior from the outside, but at the same time provides excellent visibility from the inside (Soler, by the way, was born and raised in Algeria). The result is such an oriental philosophy: you cannot be seen, but you can see everything around perfectly.
The building of the Ministry of Culture and Communications in Paris is an excellent answer to the task of the competition: the historical buildings are combined into a single whole internally and externally, and this is done gracefully and with meaning. Francis Soler completed a wonderful renovation project and not only gave buildings, streets, squares - this whole place - a second life, but also adapted it to modernity so skillfully that he preserved its historical spirit. And the ornamental mesh, it seems to me, can be perceived as a cobweb that is left on the bottles of especially rare collection wines in order to emphasize their value. This, of course, is just a version - after all, the architecture of Soler cannot be read easily and quickly, but if you can read between the lines, then over time you will definitely discover something special in it.
