President Chirac’s Museum
Sarran, France
FRENCH DEPARTMENT OF CORREZE
Architect: WILMOTTE & ASSOCIÉS
Executive project architect: JEAN PARQUET, DIDIER CHASSARY, ATELIER CENTRE NISSOU-PARQUET
Engineers: LAUMOND FAURE INGÉNIERIE, BETEC
Landscaper: MICHEL DESVIGNES
1 500 sqm + 3 767 sqm
2006
Rehabilitation and scenography, then extension, of the museum intended to house the gifts received by the President of the Republic Jacques Chirac during his two presidential terms.
The establishment of the Jacques Chirac Museum in Sarran, in the heart of a site spared by industry and ignored by tourist circuits, reflects the desire to create a tourist site in the heart of the Correze. Located on an 11,000 sqm site, the museum is built in the spirit of a contemporary hamlet with an assumed rural character.
The use of materials traditional to Correze architecture (granite, slate, oak) ensures that the museum is perfectly integrated into a meadow-like environment. The first two buildings, built to the scale of a farmhouse, house the permanent and temporary exhibition areas. In 2006, the project was completed with a third building to house the museum’s administrative services and cultural activities. Underground, the technical premises, an 800 sqm storeroom and an auditorium complete the site.
The museography was designed as a thematic tour presenting the gifts to the former President by continent and by official trip, which makes it possible to understand the context of each object, the delivery of which is always particularly codified by protocol.
