Curved, Ultramodern Building Opens in Paris

The organic shape of the headquarters building
of the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé,
which has been said to resemble a giant
armadillo, combines airy floor plans with
interior systems designed to protect the
foundation’s archives.
September 16, 2014—With a silhouette that
seems more aligned with the architectural
trends of new construction in London than
with those of Paris, the ultramodern, sloping
headquarters building of the Fondation
Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé has opened. Boasting
a curved, bulbous shape that has been
compared to an armadillo, the building is
nestled within a former courtyard in Paris’s
13th arrondissement. The bulbous roofline of
the structure peeks above a 19th-century
theater along the Avenue des Gobelins that is
known for the works on its facade sculpted by
Auguste Rodin, the creator of The Thinker and
The Kiss. Creating a building that would be
light and airy and offer carefully calibrated
archival conditions within such a historically
significant setting required the combination of
multiple structural systems within an unusual,
organic form.
The 2,200 m², five-story archive building was
designed by the Renzo Piano Building
Workshop, an internationally renowned
architecture firm that has offices in Paris, New
York City, and Genoa, Italy. The Paris-based
firm VP & Green Engineering completed the
structural design of the project.
The long, sloping building reaches a maximum
height of 25 m and is located within an 839
m² courtyard in the center of a triangular
block of historically important structures. The
courtyard was an original element of the
block, but its space had been taken by two
large buildings. Those buildings were
demolished, and the new building and a
surrounding garden have been constructed in
their place. The curved shape of the new
building, which descends belowground along
its length, gives the apartment buildings that
face the former courtyard better access to
light and air without compromising the
foundation’s needs, according to material
provided by the architects.
The main floors of the building will house
archives dedicated to cinematographic art and
the preservation of the heritage of Pathé, a
cinematography equipment and production
company, according to the architects. It will
also contain an underground screening room
with 70 seats and upper-level offices and
meeting space.
The goals of the owner for the new structure in
many ways seemed to be contradictory, as the
headquarters was to have airy office spaces,
archival spaces in which light and temperature
would be controlled, and a form that would
complement its venerable surroundings while
making its own architectural statement. For
this reason, multiple structural systems were
necessary. The resulting structure is a hybrid
of concrete and steel systems, according to
Jeremy Crossley, the structural engineer in
charge of the project for VP & Green, who
wrote in response to questions posed by Civil
Engineering online.