The Louvre Museum – Richelieu Wing
Paris, France
PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GRAND LOUVRE
Architect: IM PEI, MICHEL MACARY, WILMOTTE & ASSOCIÉS
Designer: WILMOTTE & ASSOCIÉS
Lighting: L’OBSERVATOIRE 1
Cost consultant: MARC VAREILLE
4,600 sqm
1993
Interior design of the Richelieu wing.
The second phase of the Grand Louvre project, carried out in association with the architects I. M. Pei and Michel Macary, was completed in November 1993 for the museum's bicentenary with the inauguration of the Richelieu Wing, now devoted to the department of arts object.
The main challenge was to design airy spaces that allow a pleasant reading of the works. The spaces on the first floor are made up of very different volumes, which offer the visitor different sensations from one space to another, while respecting the architecture and the works on display: around 8,000 objects, ranging from a 10-millimetre Byzantine pendant to the tapestries of Maximilian or Scipio, with a surface area of around 30 sqm. Thus, the visitor passes from a succession of small rooms for the medieval period to gigantic galleries for the tapestries of the Renaissance. This alternation of more or less dense rooms gives the whole a certain breath of fresh air.
400 specially designed showcases were needed to refurbish the entire Richelieu wing. In an environment of muted and matt tones, the objects take on their full value.
For the Richelieu wing, it was a unique opportunity to rethink the organisation of the collections.
Jean-Michel Wilmotte
architect
