Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art
Paris, France · 1994
Photo · Photo by Philippe Ruault
A key precedent for high-tech dematerialization and layered glass facades, demonstrating how a monumental screen wall can integrate nature and architecture.
- What we like about this project
- The way the monumental glass screen wall extends beyond the roofline and sides of the building to frame the sky.
Materials
- glass
- steel
- aluminum
Visual identifiers
- glass-screen-wall
- transparency
- layered-facade
- integrated-tree
- dematerialization
Style tags
- high-tech
- modernist
- minimalist
Visual tags
- high-tech
- translucency
- curtain-wall
- institutional
- urban-integration
- Geometry
- A massive, layered glass screen wall extends beyond the building's actual volume, creating a planar grid that frames a mature cedar tree.
- Facade system
- Suspended glass curtain wall and freestanding structural glass screen.
- Structural guess
- Lightweight steel frame with tension cables and glass-supporting mullions.
- Spatial scale
- A multi-story institutional building, approximately six visible levels, scaled to match the surrounding Parisian boulevard fabric.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with the interior volume glowing from within, contrasting with the deep blue twilight sky.
- Atmosphere
- Ethereal and luminous, where the physical structure seems to dissolve into light and reflections.
- Environmental context
- An urban site in Paris where the building is set back behind a monumental glass screen wall and integrated with mature trees.
- Spatial experience
- The boundary between interior and exterior is completely dissolved through layers of transparency, reflection, and structural lightness.
- Composition rhythm
- A rigorous, repeating orthogonal grid of steel mullions that extends horizontally and vertically past the building envelope.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Modernism
- Program
- Art museum and corporate headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, steel, aluminum
- Visual identifiers
- glass-screen-wall, transparency, layered-facade, integrated-tree, dematerialization
- Style tags
- high-tech, modernist, minimalist
- Visual tags
- high-tech, translucency, curtain-wall, institutional, urban-integration
- Geometry
- A massive, layered glass screen wall extends beyond the building's actual volume, creating a planar grid that frames a mature cedar tree.
- Facade system
- Suspended glass curtain wall and freestanding structural glass screen.
- Structural guess
- Lightweight steel frame with tension cables and glass-supporting mullions.
- Spatial scale
- A multi-story institutional building, approximately six visible levels, scaled to match the surrounding Parisian boulevard fabric.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with the interior volume glowing from within, contrasting with the deep blue twilight sky.
- Atmosphere
- Ethereal and luminous, where the physical structure seems to dissolve into light and reflections.
- Environmental context
- An urban site in Paris where the building is set back behind a monumental glass screen wall and integrated with mature trees.
- Spatial experience
- The boundary between interior and exterior is completely dissolved through layers of transparency, reflection, and structural lightness.
- Composition rhythm
- A rigorous, repeating orthogonal grid of steel mullions that extends horizontally and vertically past the building envelope.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Modernism
- Program
- Art museum and corporate headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture