Location: Paris, France.

Architect: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

The Bourse de Commerce is a new project in Paris launched by François Pinault, which aims to renew France’s identity as a country of culture and art. The project involves transforming the historic building into a space for contemporary art while respecting the memories of the city engraved in its walls. The architect of the project, Tadao Ando, previously worked on the Punta della Dogana in Venice, where he introduced architectural elements as devices for inducing dialogue between the old and new. The Bourse de Commerce has a circular plan with an iconic rotunda at its center, and the space will be reconfigured with the insertion of a cylinder, thirty meters in diameter, formed by a concrete wall approximately nine meters high. This cylinder will give shape to the central exhibition space under the cupola and encase the auditorium and foyer below ground. A new corridor space will also be created between the outside of the cylinder and the Blondel-designed interior façade. The layering of the rotunda and the cylinder and of old and new will give rise to a sequence of even more powerful, varied spaces and create a lively place appropriate for upholding the city’s culture for the next generation. The opening of the Bourse de Commerce has been postponed to spring 2021. The architectural team includes Tadao Ando Architect & Associates (TAAA), Pierre-Antoine Gatier Agency, NeM / Niney et Marca Architectes, and Setec bâtiment.

Photo credit: Marc Domage.