Ristrutturazione del Padiglione Dufour, Castello di Versailles

Premio Domus Restauro e Conservazione

Year of entry: 2017

Crediti

Cliente

French Operator for Heritage and Cultural Building Projects (Oppic)

Collaboratori

Autori

Dominique Perrault

In 2011 the Versailles Castle launched a competition for the “Pavillon Dufour”, along with the old wing that links it to the palace, in order to properly welcome the ever increasing number of visitors. The project combines restoration, renovation and modern construction, to take the Château to the level of modernity it owes to its visitors.

Disegni tecnici:

Report esteso:

Relazione estesa

As the pavilion was too tight, the brief suggested to modify the façade, but Dominique Perrault won the competition by proposing a solution to maintain it. He proposed to extend the basement of the Pavilion and the old wing into an underground space excavated beneath the adjacent Princes’ Courtyard. The strategy minimize the visual impact of the project: only an expanded wall of glass, forming the guardrail for a new exit staircase and acting as a skylight to the basement, is visible above ground. The program not only includes the visitor desk and a ticket office, but also a museum shop, an auditorium and a gourmet restaurant. Roofs and façades were restored under the direction of Frédéric Didier, chief architect of the national authority of Monuments Historiques.

Dominique Perrault concentrated his modernist intervention in the interior spaces. Visitors are now greeted with a “royal” welcome, in keeping with the symbols carried down across the centuries by the history of France. The variations of the elements are held together by the precision of Gaëlle Lauriot- Prévost’s careful yet playful design. She engages fearlessly with the exuberant imagination of the baroque period. Folds, draperies, suns and their reflections have been translated into a contemporary language while retaining all their power. The golden rule for Dominique Perrault and Gaëlle Lauriot- Prévost has thus been to embrace contemporary architecture while ensuring a sensitive, engaged and loving intervention on this jewel of French heritage. The new entrance opened its doors in February 2016, after a three-year renovation project.