Moatti-Rivière completes France’s first graphic design centre in Chaumont
Alain Moatti of Moatti-Rivière architects, and Juliette Weisbuch, director of Polymago design studio are the brains behind France's first graphic design centre in Chaumont, in eastern France.
In converting the 19th century Banque de France for its new purpose, the architects worked around a key priority: that the new centre had to feel inclusive to the 23,000 inhabitants of the town. '[This is] not a museum, but a living communal place,' explained Alain Moatti at the opening.
It's a fitting home for the centre. Chaumont has a growing tradition in graphic design, having launched the acclaimed International Poster Design competition in 1980 following local botanist Gustave Dutailly's endowment of his collection of vintage posters to the town in 1906.
Moatti's minimalist construction takes graphic design as its inspiration, with thin stone sheets on an aluminium beehive base representing the designer's canvas of page, poster or screen. At the same time, the building's height evokes the scale of Chaumont's civic architecture. The architects also used the same colour natural limestone as the adjacent bank's.
Weisbuch screen-printed each stone sheet individually with a double motif of black dots – 'like a tattoo, discrete, but indelible'. The centre features two floors of exhibition space, a workshop to present printing and screen-printing techniques, two training rooms, a small bookshop and 'the most beautiful café in town!', say the architects.
As part of the original mosaic floor was damaged, Weisbuch replaced it with a functioning QR code in black ceramic tiles at the base of an original 19th century mantlepiece. She also created the sign system, an 'alphabet' composed of 86 symbols taken from the visual patrimony of Chaumont. Milton Glaser's silhouette of Bob Dylan is side by side with heraldic images from the town's emblem.
'Simple through its use of a single material, rich through its volume, Chaumont's national graphic design centre is a silent abstraction ready to welcome all images,' concludes Moatti.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the Moatti-Rivière website and the Polymago website
Photography: Michel Denancé
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
‘What does a Luca Faloni jacket look like?’: this suede bomber marks the brand’s first foray into outerwear
‘Made for years to come’, this lightweight bomber marks Luca Faloni’s entry into outerwear and encapsulates the label’s provenance-focused approach
By Jack Moss Published
-
Volkswagen celebrates 50 years of the Golf, its most famous modern model, with a flight of fancy
Wallpaper* travelled to eastern Turkey in search of the perfect backdrop to mark 50 years and eight generations of the evergreen VW Golf
By Adam Hay-Nicholls Published
-
Montreal Navigator: a guide to the city, from modernist marvels to gastronomic gems
Montreal, Quebec’s largest city, is a creative whirlwind, offering up a vibrant mix of arts and design venues, great restaurants, and a crowd-pulling cultural calendar
By Laura May Todd Published
-
La Grande Motte: touring the 20th-century modernist dream of a French paradise resort
La Grande Motte and its utopian modernist dreams, as seen through the lens of photographers Laurent Kronental and Charly Broyez, who spectacularly captured the 20th-century resort community in the south of France
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain unveils plans for new Jean Nouvel building
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has plans for a new building in Paris, working with architect Jean Nouvel
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Discover Tempe à Pailla, a lesser-known Eileen Gray gem nestled in the French Riviera
Tempe à Pailla is a modernist villa in the French Riviera brimming with history, originally designed by architect Eileen Gray and extended by late British painter Graham Sutherland
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Gulbenkian Foundation's new art centre by Kengo Kuma is light and inviting
Lisbon's Gulbenkian Foundation reveals its redesign and new contemporary art museum, Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM), by Kengo Kuma with landscape architects VDLA
By Amah-Rose Mcknight Abrams Published
-
At Lee Ufan Arles, tension and calm guide relationships between space and art
Lee Ufan Arles opens in the south of France, a collaboration between the famed Korean artist and Japanese architect Tadao Ando
By Amah-Rose Mcknight Abrams Published
-
A new era: Centre Pompidou architects discuss their bold 2030 plans
Plans for the Centre Pompidou 2030 vision were recently announced, revealing a design refresh of the iconic Paris structure; we caught up with its lead architects Moreau Kusunoki to hear more
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneer
Back in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Grand Paris Express, Europe’s largest urban design project, is en route to success
The Grand Paris Express is a system of new rapid transit lines across the French capital, with each station designed by a different architect – and it's currently under construction
By Amy Serafin Published