The new architectural wings of the Hôtel de Galliffet will be enigmatic and surprising appearances.
Logics of composition, materials and formal repertoire push the architectural bodies towards an expressive vocabulary for which the terms of lightness and permeability prevail.
The strategy of inclusion aims to give the new buildings a kind of perceptive dematerialization; this way proceeding the partial clogging of the courts will assume a character of agreement and co-operation rather than imposition.
The two architectural bodies openly cite the great Parisian architectures of transparency, made of steel and glass: precious facades just as a tissue of amber smoked glass protect spaces for which the direct visual relationship with the outside is to be a decisive added value.
Shading crystal "slabs", all dimensionally and formally identical throughout the facades, build up the impression of changing, mysterious and someway indecipherable objects. The glass elements, alternating in different depths and ledges, draw patterns and three-dimensional warps.
The precise rigor of the design establishes a relationship of complementarity showing respect towards the existing historical presences.
The fast pace of vertical lines speaks a silent conversation with the seven-nineteenth-century facades; theories of line-balconies cite the beautiful Parisian railings; crystal elements reflect and multiply fronts and open spaces giving back the observer layered and particle images of a dream-like consistency.
By day, the buildings will absorb the skies and colors of Paris; At night, they will become amazing lanterns of soft light.
The new wings of the Hôtel de Galliffet will be an expression of the millennial Italian excellence in glass and metal processing.
Italians imported the Middle East most ancient techniques for the production and processing of glass, as well as the invention of crystal and the techniques for the production of glass in sheets and slabs.
The same can be said regarding the production and processing of steel (according to forms and compositions forerunners of modern structural steels), of which the Romans were already extraordinary performers.
The new buildings will stage this millennial Italian excellence by mixing it with the characters, colors and forms of expression of architecture in Paris. The result will be an interesting built blend, an urban scenario for which the cooperation between the two countries will take the form of an original and exciting public performance.
The buildings, made with dry technology, will be entirely removable and reducible to their elementary components. The totality of structural and complementary elements in metal, internal partitions as well as all glass facade, can be reused if necessary. The constructions will be 100% recyclable.
Location: Paris, France
Program: Expansion of the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris; hotel de charme, cultural and exhibition spaces, restaurant, underground parking, classrooms and spaces for teachers
Client: Italian Institute of Culture in Paris
Architects: Tomas Ghisellini Architects
Collaborators: Lucrezia Alemanno, Daniele Francesco Petralia, Salvatore Scandurra
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