Designs of the Year Award 2015 - Architecture

Paris, 20 October 2014 - The President of the French Republic, François Hollande, received by Bernard Arnault, President of the LVMH group and of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, today inaugurated the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Monday 20 October 2014) in the presence of Fleur Pellerin, Minister of Culture and Communication, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and Frank Gehry, architect of the building.
The President of the Republic visited this new venue, dedicated to contemporary art in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne, and met with artists whose works are part of the opening exhibition.
After the inauguration ceremony, guests were invited to attend the illumination of the building, designed by Hervé Descottes, while opera singer Nathalie Dessay, accompanied by cellist Henri Demarquette, performed Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vocalise.
Among the guests at the inauguration were designers of the LVMH group including JW Anderson, Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo, Raf Simons and Riccardo Tisci.
Following the departure of the President of the Republic, a dinner by chef étoilé Jean-Louis Nomicos, Director of the Foundation’s restaurant, Le Frank, was served to the guests in the Fondation’s Auditorium.

---

A new ambition for LVMH’s corporate patronage

Created in 2006 on the initiative of Bernard Arnault, the Fondation Louis Vuitton marks a new stage in the sponsorship policy of the LVMH group and its associates and the crystallization of activities that it has undertaken over the past twenty-five years to support art, culture and heritage. Five years after meeting the architect Frank Gehry, Bernard Arnault launched a major project with him, collaborating with Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister of Culture, Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, and Yves Carcelle, Chairman of Louis Vuitton.

Both a company foundation and a private cultural initiative, the Fondation Louis Vuitton was born through shared enthusiasm and determi nation, and is a commitment to a region, a city and a country. Located in the heart of Greater Paris, in the Bois de Boulogne and on the dividing line between Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, just on the edge of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, the Fondation Louis Vuitton makes a decisive contribution to the cultural landscape of the Ile de France and will renew interest in the area west of Paris. Built at the heart of a historically and culturally important site, this structural innovation enriches our national legacy and the world’s cultural heritage.

It marks a new stage launched by a renewed orientation:
— A long-term commitment to a specific location and to perpetuating an institution.
— A major act of philanthropy for Paris with the construction of an exceptional building in the public domain of the city, and the signature with the municipality of an occupancy contract for 55 years.

Propelled by its vocation in the general interest, the Fondation Louis Vuitton confirms its
commitment to contemporary art and to making it accessible to as many people as possible. To encourage contemporary artistic creation both nationally and internationally, the Fondation Louis Vuitton maintains a permanent collection, commissions works from artists, and organizes temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and multidisciplinary installations. Its priorities include implementation of an educational function, particularly to young publics.

A building between the woods and the garden

The Fondation Louis Vuitton is located on the frontier between the Bois de Boulogne and the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a well-known part of the capital frequented for over a century by generations of Parisians. This 19th century landscaped park was designed by Alphand and Barillet-Deschamps and has been a source of inspiration for architects since its earliest days. The landscaping project that accompanies the construction of the Fondation building recalls the original spirit of the place. Based on a study of the site’s history, it recaptures the overall effect of the Jardin d’Acclimatation: walks have been renewed, architectural elements have been restored to life, a wide range of trees and plants will renew the park’s botanical and historical heritage. In the course of a stroll one meets numerous visual surprises, starting with the vast sails of the foundation building emerging from the foliage of centuries-old oak and beech. The foundation’s project is thus above all a project for the site itself. From the very beginning, with Frank Gehry’s first walks through the Jardin d’Acclimatation, it was a question of creating a building that communicated with nature with the history of the environment, with the woods and the glass and iron architecture of the Jardin at the end of the 19th century.

A new monument for Paris

Frank Gehry has designed a building that, through its strength and singularity, represents the first artistic step on the part of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. This large vessel covered in twelve glass sails, situated in the Bois de Boulogne, on the edge of avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, is attached to the Jardin d’Acclimatation. Set on a water garden created for the occasion, the building blends into the natural environment, amidst the wood and the garden, playing with light and mirror effects.

The building stretches over a total surface area of 11000 m2, including 7000 m2 publicly available. It offers 11 galleries dedicated to the presentation of the collections, contributions from artists and temporary exhibitions, along with a 350-seater auditorium with a modular design, in other words some 3,850 m2 of museum space. The visitor can complete their tour with terraces that enjoy exceptional views over Paris, La Défense and the surrounding area. From the Eiffel Tower to the canopy of the Bois de Boulogne, from the Jardin’s Pigeon Tower to the skyscrapers of La Défense, the visitors can discover, from the Fondation’s heights, brand new Grand Paris views.

The museum’s privileged setting in this landscaped garden, its creative and innovative architecture and the new cultural hub that it intends to represent for as many people as possible are designed to attract both local families and tourists from all over the world, along with architecture and contemporary art enthusiasts.

Inseparable from the image of its building and encompassing a large-scale artistic project, the Fondation Louis Vuitton looks to form an integral part of the Parisian landscape and become an international benchmark in the years following its inauguration.

A new landmark in 21st – century architecture

From the very first sketch, the building that Frank Gehry designed for the Fondation Louis Vuitton is its inaugural artistic gesture. The building designed by Frank Gehry combines all of the architect’s methods, codes and modes of expression and marks a new step in his work.

Guided by Proust’s memory, he took his inspiration from the lightness of late 19th-century
glass and garden architecture to make his first sketch. Through the creation of a host of mockups, the architect has successfully given a sense of momentum to the building designed as a yacht or a vessel: set on a water garden, rising among the Jardin d’Acclimatation’s century-old trees, it blends in seamlessly with the natural environment.

The choice of the materials expresses the idea of transparency: a glass shell covers the
body of the building, an assembly of blocks known as the “iceberg”, giving it its volume and movement. The definitive mock-up was then scanned to provide the digital model for the project. The architect took a revolutionary approach to the work with glass in particular to bring his vision to life: “Our wish was to conceive a building that would evolve with the passing of the hours and with the changing light so as to create an impression of the ephemeral, and of continual change”. This architectural challenge is one of the iconic architectural achievements of the 21st century.


Major stages in the progress of the Fondation Louis Vuitton

2001 - Bernard Arnault meets Frank Gehry
October 2006 - The birth of the Fondation Louis Vuitton
December 2006 - Agreement with the City of Paris
August 2007 - Planning permission is granted.
March 2008 - Opening of the construction site.
September 2009 - The civil engineering work begins.
2010 - The mock-up.
2011 - Completion of the carcass and fitting of the iceberg’s metallic framework.
2012 - Installation of the iceberg’s shells, Ductal® and then the glass roofs.
18 December 2013 - Laying the final stone in the presence of Bernard Arnault, Bertrand Delanoë and Anne Hidalgo.
March 2014 - Acceptance of the building.
Spring 2014 - Final landscaping of the surrounding environment.
20 October 2014 - Official inauguration, under the patronage of François Hollande.
24-25-26 October 2014 - Open doors weekend.
27 October 2014 - Opening to the public.