Dichotomy in the d'Orsay

Dichotomy O. Gates Breeden

Site plan of the Musée d’Orsay

The Gare d’Orsay was built in 1900 as an arrival gateway for the World Exposition in Paris by the architect Victor LaLoux. At that time, it served as both a train station and a hotel for travelers from Bordeaux, Toulon, and Nantes. Three colossal statues are situated on the facade facing the River Seine to represent these cities.

The station is sited in a Parisian quarter defined by monuments, government ministries, the Tuileries, and the Louvre. Although modern building technology was employed, 2

the architect defined the appearance of the station in the typical classicist architectural language that can be found in the center of Paris, intending the station to fit visually into the fabric of the capital. Specifically, the exterior of the Gare conforms to typical monumental Parisian patterns, with a symmetrical form adorned with Lutetian limestone, highly ornamental detailing, and a zinc roof.

The classical appearance disguised the metal and glass-infused industrial building systems of railway stations of

the 1900’s. This veil still exists today and gives little indication that the building now functions as a museum.

The Gare d’Orsay operated as a railway station until 1939 accommodating typical coal trains.

After electric power replaced the steam engine, the inner-city station could not accommodate the longer trains anymore. Both the station and hotel fell into a state of obsolescence and were vacant for nearly 40 years.

At this time, the issue of what to

Gare d’Orsay Schmidt, Patrice. Intérieur de la gare d’Orsay (1900), Paris, France. Musée d’Orsay, https://www.musee-orsay. fr/en/collections/history-of-the-museum/the-station.html

Musée d’Orsay

do with the land became highly contested amongst the French when the government rashly razed Les Halles, the most significant market in Paris. Demolition of Les Halles caused outrage and raised a new awareness and appreciation for their classical architectural heritage. The public overruled plans to replace the Gare d’Orsay with a modern hotel and designated the building as a historic monument by the Ministry of Culture.

Even though the building was saved from destruction, it took decades of procrastination to reach a consensus for a new program for the abandoned station. During Giscard d’Estaing’s presidency, the French Museum Commission pursued the idea to have the train station as a venue to display the French Impressionist collection that was, at the time, in several different exhibition spaces throughout the city. The new museum was intended to unify the collection and bridge the gap between the

classical art of the Louvre and the modern collection of the Centre Pompidou. The project became a part of the multiple efforts of the French government, chiefly initiated by its former president, Georges Pompidou, to restore Paris’ global cultural dominance and reestablish France as an important nation. In the case of the Gare d’Orsay, the discourse focused on the new relationship between the existing Beaux Art enclosure and the modern museum.

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Section and axon of gallery intervention

For the conversion into what is now known as the Musée d’Orsay, a competition was held and won by a French firm called ACT Architecture.

They derived the spatial ordering system of the museum by orienting the galleries along the horizontal axis of the building, channeling visitors through the galleries just as the trains would 50 years prior. This positioning was atypical to classic French design principles in that it established the front entrance towards the Hotel Salm instead of the symmetrical River Seine facing facade. As ACT proposed their ideas, including a winter garden inside the museum, the curatorial staff became skeptical of their schemes and decided to hold a separate competition for the interior. Gae Aulenti, the winner of the competition, a Milanese architect aligned herself with the curators which allowed her to make systematic changes which differed significantly from ACT’s design of the Musée.

She attributed some of her success to being an Italian woman because she did not fit the norm of a typical architect that could be ordered around. Because of her efforts, she was the first female architect honored 4

with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to French culture. This award is the highest honor the French government can bestow on a person for either civil and military merit.

Additionally, she was also the only female designer of the Mitterrand’s ‘Grande Projects’ campaign.

The museum was made a part of a series of contemporary institutional structures to be supported by Mitterrand’s socialist government.

Collectively, these projects were intended not only to offer a broader range of cultural activity but also to portray and propel the party’s forward-thinking platforms through the use of architecture. As many of the proposed projects were conceived as artifacts which rejected adherence to existing norms, Mitterrand’s scheme became a polarizing idea in France.

With respect to the change of the Gare d’Orsay to the Musée d’Orsay, Aulenti described the existing Gare d’Orsay as “basically a box” and supposedly focused the renovation strategy primarily on the artwork it was to display. However, there

seems to be a definitive and intentional contrast between the existing Beaux Arts train station and Aulenti’s Postmodern approach to the new parts of the museum.

The intervention’s contrasts are characterized by its material, form, orientation, structure, and color.

In almost all instances, it could be argued that Aulenti uses the direct antithesis of the existing elements in the new construction. Each moment of the Gare Aulenti meets with its exact opposite in the Musée.

Although the components could not be any more different, critics praise its rich and unique mediation that seamlessly blends together.

The ceiling of the original large barrel vault establishes one of the station’s characteristics. Domed ceilings, used for service and circulation, adjoin the main room. Aulenti imposes strict, rectilinear, planar forms to break up the expansive circular spaces. The results preserve and protect the historical architecture of the Gare while unequivocally establishing a place for museum visitors, not travelers.

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Plan and section of the Musée d’ Orsay with insertions in red.

For the station conversion, Aulenti intends for her additions’ forms to be developed on a pure functional basis.

The result creates a sharp contrast Dichotomy

Auxillary Exhbit Space Gallery Interventions

Main Gallery

Gallery Interventions

The material palette of the new museum and old station directly contrast. LaLoux used plaster moldings, cornices, wrought iron, and gold leafed ornamentation throughout the train station. These materials are typical in a decorative Beaux Arts interior. Prior to Modernism, architects relied heavily on the use of ornament and decoration towards architecturally articulating a particular style. Train stations were no exception. In France, many stations of the same period show differences, but are in fact very similar in their ornamentation and articulation of their industrial structural details. Aulenti does not subscribe to a simple stylistically driven cladding method, but pursued an idea to make all of her projects, including the Musée d’Orsay, unique and specific. In Paris, she also favored modern materials to push the boundaries of architecture and create a congenial environment for the visitor.

Auxillary Exhbit Space

Stair Towers

Entrance

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Entry into auxiliary galleries with example of grated dampeners

Angled paneling system with hidden stair

between the stylistic elements of the Beaux Arts movement and an architectural insertion that reacts to a situation without predetermination.

The individual architectural response to a specific condition is characteristic of Aulenti’s work, who seeks beauty in the utility of the architectural elements and their total composition.

Aulenti makes several decisions throughout the main gallery hall to visually stimulate, without distracting the space. In several interviews she has referenced how her designs are intended to complement the artwork that is going to be displayed, instead of detracting from it.

There are a multitude of moments seemingly hidden to the unassuming eye in the Musée d’Orsay that are used to retool the space or its bounds, allowing it to perform several functions in addition to being visually appealing. Accounting for the grandiose size of the museum, the space is astonishingly quiet. Aulenti takes advantage of the thicknesses of 6

the various wall terminations to insert grated acoustic dampening. She employs angled stone planes to hide the egress from the first to second floors, to both protect the visual continuity of the main corridor as well as strategically revealing certain sculptures. The imposing stair towers that anchor the ends of the grand hall filter visitors from the first and second floors of the main hall into the upper galleries in the auxiliary portions of the d’Orsay. The stair serves not only as a people mover, but creates an additional exhibition gallery dedicated to the history of architecture in Paris.

While ascending, the view of the main hall is withheld until the terminus to invoke a sense of awe and provide in the visitor, another monumental perspective of the enormous sculpture gallery. Furthermore, the stair breaks the established horizontal orientation travelers would have taken in the Gare.

Aulenti divides the expansive main hall with a series of interior rooms, perhaps operating as a public

sculpture park adjoined by intimate galleries. The spatial variety forms an attractive path for the visitors and simultaneously satisfies the requirements of the curatorial staff.

The spaces offer a variety of lighting conditions, including natural light from the vaulted ceilings for the sculptures and highly controlled electric light for the salon art.

Overall, the configuration allows for an atypical route of museum travel, an arrangement that compels the visitor to premeditate a route they want to follow through the museum.

Aulenti claims that choosing a route themselves offers a more enriching experience for the museumgoer. As a whole, while the paths are reflective and acknowledge in many ways the previous navigational pattern of a train station, it also challenges the historic dimension.

Aulenti uses colors and materials that are, while contrasting, mostly complementary to the existing station. She uses red plaster walls against the existing greens found in O. Gates Breeden

Palais d’Orsay between 1830 and 1848.

Source: Vues de quelques monuments de Paris par Félix Duban.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Bibliography Finn, Pat. “From Aulenti to Wigglesworth: 26 More Women Who Changed Architecture Architizer Journal.” Architizer, 8 Mar. 2019, https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/industry/from-aulenti-to-wigglesworth-26-morewomen-who-changed-architecture/.

Goldberger, Paul. “ARCHITECTURE: THE NEW MUSSEE D’ORSAY IN PARIS.” New York Times Magazine, 2 Apr. 1987.

the adjacent main hall. The exterior limestone which also appears on several places on the inside of LaLoux’s station is echoed by Aulenti’s arrangement. Aulenti’s stonework displays its thickness in the section at the end of a course, while LaLoux’s stone is solely used as a surface which could easily be understood as a structural material.

The Gare d’Orsay’s primary roof structure is cast iron. Interesting to note, it used more metal by tonnage than the Eiffel Tower. The architectonic rhythm of arches and columns of the station are on clear display as both structure and ornament of the station. LaLoux designed the heavily bolted wrought iron columns and trusses to portray the modern industrial nature of the

Gare while contrasting his own heavy ornamentation that saturates the space elsewhere. Inversely, In Aulenti’s additions, the structure is hidden and can only be assumed in most places. When exposed, the highly geometrical structure is painted white, which tends to hide it in plain sight. Overall, her work gives the impression that she wanted her spaces to appear in a more atectonic manner, as a collection of heavier forms that exist in space without any direct particular tectonic nature yet ordered by the existing structural grid.

Gae Aulenti employs a system of adaptive reuse in the Musée d’Orsay where the essence of the existing building is preserved, while the new museum is inserted as a contrasting dialog.

“History of the Museum.” Musée D’Orsay: History of the Museum, 23 Mar. 2015, https:// www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/historyof-the-museum/home.html.

Mathieu, Caroline. Orsay: Architecture. Éditions Scala, 2003.

Mettais Valérie. Your Visit to Orsay: Architecture, Scupture, Painting, Graphic Arts, Photography, Cinematography, Decorative Arts. Art Lys, 1999.

Petranzan, Margherita, and Susan Meadows. Gae Aulenti. Rizzoli, 1997.

Petranzan, Margherita, and Gae Aulenti. Gae Aulenti. Rizzoli/Skira, 2002.

Schneider, Andrea Kupfer. Creating the Musée DOrsay: the Politics of Culture in France.

Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

“Musée D’Orsay.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Dec. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/MuseedOrsay.

Vogel, Carol. “The Aulenti Uproar.” The New York Times Magazine, 22 Nov. 1987, https:// www.nytimes.com/1987/11/22/magazine/ the-aulenti-uproar.html?auth=logingoogle&login=google.

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