Musée de la Romanité, Nîmes Building, Museum Development, Images, French Architecture
Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes
Museum Development in Southern France ? design by Elizabeth de Portzamparc, architect
10 Oct 2017
Musée de la Romanité
Architect: Elizabeth de Portzamparc
Location: Nîmes, France
Musée de la Romanité

The building that will house the Musée de la Romanité has been delivered to the city of Nîmes. Prior to the installation of its collections and its forthcoming 2018 opening, this building and its unique façade are being unveiled facing the Arenas of Nîmes (the Roman amphitheater).

In the midst of Nîmes?s exceptional vestiges of antiquity, Elizabeth de Portzamparc has set up a unique architectural dialog between this ancient heritage and contemporary architecture.
Facing the Arenas, the museum?s design imbues this major site of classical antiquity with a new dynamism and a sense of complementarity, ensuring its rightful place in the city?s history. The soft and horizontal undulations, the predominance of glass, the transparence and the lightness of the Musée de la Romanité contrast with the verticality of the Arenas? stone arches and their imposing mass that has stood there for nearly two millennia. On one side, a large cylindrical volume surrounded by the stone verticals of the Roman arches, on the other a large square volume, which seems to be floating and entirely draped in a toga of pleated glass.

The façade of the Musée de la RomanitÃ...