News Projects Practice Principles People Search Centre de conservation du Louvre à Liévin Project Partners Graham Stirk Lennart Grut John McElgunn Project Leads Cecilia Pineiro-Lopez Hamish Crockett Theo Pagnon Job Sheets English Français Play % buffered 01:11 Mute Enter fullscreen Overview RSHP won an international competition to design a new collections facility for the Louvre in 2015. The facility is designed to integrate storage and conservation of more than 250,000 works of art that are currently distributed between 60 different locations around France. The winning proposals create an environmentally sensitive and elegantly understated facility emerging from the landscape. The conservation and storage centre, comprising 20,000 square metres of space, is located in Liévin in northern France, alongside the recently opened Louvre-Lens by Sanaa architects. Taking advantage of the natural slope in the terrain, the building emerges seamlessly from the landscape, defined by two pairs of concrete walls, reminiscent of the French military architecture of Vauban. Its green roof forms a gently-sloped visual extension to the Louvre Lens park, and a link in a green arc connecting Liévin to Lens itself. The facility provides a counterpoint to the transparent and ephemeral museum building, exploring the expressive potential of what is hidden and what is revealed. At the front of the building, double height windows bring light into study and conservation workspaces, with a mezzanine floor for offices at one end. As well as enhancing the working environment, these windows allow glimpses through the trees into the inner workings of this private facility and create a buffer zone between storage spaces and street. Sliding screens allow for additional flexibility of use and separate these workspaces from a top-lit central corridor – the internal ‘artworks boulevard’ of the building and its principal circulation space. On the other side of this circulation space, a sequence of storage spaces beneath an arched roof are arranged on a single level and reduce in height from six metres to three metres, in a direct response to the needs of the collection. All services are housed in the twin exterior walls, keeping the collection spaces completely clear. Cutting edge technology works with the thermal mass provided by the surrounding soil to ensure stable and optimal climatic conditions for the storage of art and minimum environmental impact of the building. Water management is also fully integrated into the landscape design, to maximise re-use and to minimise flood risk. Vehicle access is submerged below the landscaping, enabling easy loading and unloading of artworks from lorries, and ensuring segregation of access for goods vehicles and users of the facility (researchers, curators and scientists). Data Awards 2020 Prix de l’Equerre d’Argent - finalist Team Ainhoa Abreu Diaz, Stephen Barrett, Tobi Frenzen, Lennart Grut, Alex Kitching, Mathias Koester, Kinga Koren, Nina Manchorova, John McElgunn, Theo Pagnon, Ceclia Pineiro-Lopez, Nicolas Salthouse, Graham Stirk, James White, Andrew Yek Date 2015-2019 Location Liévin, France Area 20 000 m² Technical Consultancy Egis Bâtiments Nord Environmental Consultancy Inddigo SAS Quantity Surveyor VPEAS SAS Landscape Architect Mutabilis Paysage Project Partners Graham Stirk Lennart Grut John McElgunn Project Leads Cecilia Pineiro-Lopez Hamish Crockett Theo Pagnon Job Sheets English Français News RSHP sets up new office in Paris News RSHP's new Louvre building revealed Related