Palais de Tokyo, site for contemporary creation by Lacaton & Vassal

Since the reopening in 2001, the "Palais de Tokyo" is related to the freedom it provides both artists and visitors, offering a flexible, multiple and changing space, ready to host many activities.

Lacaton and Vassal have decided to remain faithful to the original restoration, where everything was kept raw, revealing the honesty of the material.

Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Site for contemporary creation. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Lacaton & Vassal. Click above to see larger image.

10 years after its reopening, the Palais de Tokyo is organized into four levels, in the spirit of the site of contemporary creation. This new approach allows to fully utilize the height, the richness and complementarity of space and volume.

The area of contemporary art appears as a place of varied offers a place of life and leisure, a place of diversity. Opened to the public, this area is the seat of exhibitions, events, movies, music, fashion, bookstore, café, boutiques ... The public dimension that acquires this area is really important. The spaces are flexible, providing a variety of situations that attracts viewers and avoids monotony.

The spirit of the project and the multiplicity of the needed supply for the Palais de Tokyo are requirements that are fulfilled by maximum utilization of available space and a treatment that allows the independent use of each area. The use of the whole space must facilitate, strengthen and broaden the number and diversity of ideas, events, so the downtime is zero.

The Fun Palace of Cedric Price is the reference and the subject in which architects have trusted. An opened and intelligent container, which allows freedom of use. "Fun Palace: Coming and going ... or just take a look in passing. No need to find the entrance - you can get everywhere. There are no doors, no entry, no queues form: everything is open . look, take an elevator, a ramp, an escalator to go to anything that sounds interesting ... Choose what you want to do, or see what someone else does. At any time of day or night, winter or summer , whatever. If it rains, the roof can stop the rain, but not the light ... " Cedric Price.

The project uses the space and place in its verticality. The possibility of going up and down, going from one space to another, from one activity to another, ensures that the public might see something interesting on every level. The project's aim is twofold: first, open the maximum number of new space for public activities, and secondly, continue the work of technical renovation of the building, essential to sustainability and performance.

CREDITS OF THE PROJECT

Architects: Lacaton & Vassal.
Year: 2012.
Size: Phase 1: 7800 sqm. Phase 2: 16500 sqm.
Client: Ministère de la culture, Délégation aux Arts plastiques.
Location: Paris, France.

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Vista interior. Palais de Tokyo, París. Proyecto de reforma por Lacaton & Vassal.Fotografía © Florent Michel.

Site for contemporary creation. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Philippe Ruault.

"The Blind Leading the Blind", by Peter Buggenhout. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Aurélien Mole.

Interior view. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Florent Michel.

Interior view. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Florent Michel. Click above to see larger image.

"Subfaciem", by Cécile Beau. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © André Morin. Click above to see larger image.

Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Site for contemporary creation. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Philippe Ruault.

Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Site for contemporary creation. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Philippe Ruault. Click above to see larger image.

Firts floor plan. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Click above to see larger image.

Second floor plan and thirth floor plan. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Click above to see larger image.

Sections. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Click above to see larger image.

Exterior view. Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Remodeling project by Lacaton & Vassal. Photography © Florent Michel.

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More information

Anne Lacaton - Jean-Philippe Vassal. Lacaton and Vassal

Lacaton & Vassal. Anne Lacaton and Jean Phillippe Vassal created the office in 1989, based in Paris. The office has a practice in France, as well as abroad, working on various buildings and urban planning programs.

Anne LACATON was born in France in 1955. She graduated from the School of architecture of Bordeaux in 1980, and got a diploma in Urban Planning at the university of Bordeaux in 1984. She is teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Madrid since 2007, and was invited in 2011 at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, as well as in Harvard GSD Studio in Paris in 2011.

Jean Philippe VASSAL was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1954. He graduated from the School of Architecture of Bordeaux in 1980. He worked as an urban planner in Niger from 1980 to 1985. He is professor at UdK Berlin since 2012, and has been a visiting professor at the TU in Berlin in 2007-2010, and at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne in 2010-11.

Main Awards, the Grand Prix National d’Architecture, France, 2008, the Rolf Schock Prize, visual arts category, Sweden 2014, the Daylight & Building Components Award, Velum Fonden, Denmark, 2011, and the International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2009, the Equerre d'Argent award 2011, with Frédéric Druot, France. Their work has been shortlisted several times and twice finalist for the Mies Van der Rohe Award, European Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

The main works completed by the office are: the FRAC, Public Contemporary Art Collection, in Dunkerque, France; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Site for contemporary creation ; social housing and student housing in Paris ; a music and polyvalent hall in Lille ; the Café for the Architektur Zentrum in Vienna ; a School for Business and Management in Bordeaux ; the Architecture school in Nantes, and significant housing projects in France such as the House Latapie, Bordeaux ; the House in the trees, facing Arcachon Bay, the "Cité Manifeste" in Mulhouse. They are now working on the transformation of modernist social housing : the Transformation of Tour Bois le Prêtre in Paris (with Frédéric Druot, architect), in St Nazaire la Chesnaie and in Bordeaux Grand Parc (with F Druot and Ch. Hutin, architects). All these projects are based on a principle of generosity and economy, serving the life, the uses and the appropriation, with the aim of changing the standard.