To mark the 2013 edition of Paris Design Week, the Banque de France opened up its new Conference Area to the public. The rooms were built in 2012 by the architectural and scenography agency Moatti-Rivière.
Located at the Banque de France headquarters in Paris, the Conference Area comprises an auditorium and a series of meeting rooms, which are incorporated into the existing art deco reception hall, built between 1936 and 1950.
Rich in complexity, the new design forms a crossroads between the traditional and the modern – a continuation of the history of the building, but with a resolutely contemporary twist. The auditorium is coated in mirrored steel and suspended from the ceiling of the great reception hall, leaving the original architecture intact, but creating a dramatic play of light and reflection that breaks with the sharp lines of the art deco design.
Inside the auditorium, the emphasis is on colour, with an intense blue used for all furnishings, including the reproductions of the frescoes from the nearby Galerie Dorée in the Hôtel de Toulouse, a former hôtel particulier which is also part of the Banque de France’s headquarters.
On 14 September, as part of Design Week, the Bank organised a guided tour of the Conference Area, with a presentation of the project by Alain Moatti.
Note: the agency Moatti-Rivière was one of the six finalists for the project to transform the Hôtel Gaillard into the Cité de l’Economie.
For more details, click on:
- Paris Design Week 2013
Presentation of Design Week (video)
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Crédits photo :
Auditorium, Banque de France (75001).
Copyright : Michel Denancé
Published on 12 September 2013. Updated on 10 October 2022