This project reimagines the Ferme de La Vauve, a former cereal farm on the on the periphery of Paris, into a painting conservation center for the Pompidou’s collection. The existing farmhouse, stables, and workshop on the site will be restored and an underground level is inserted that connects the buildings internally. The majority of the museum’s program is located underneath the existing courtyard with a void cut out for the sunken garden. Racks with space to store 8,000 paintings line the perimeter of the central void. Works from the Pompidou’s collection not currently on view will be stored here under optimal climate conditions, making them permanently accessible for research. Conservation labs and back of house spaces form a secondary perimeter around the visible painting storage. Visitors are able to observe the labs behind a glass wall near the public entry. As they circulate the perimeter loop, visitors encounter a series of visible storage galleries for exhibition, research, and scholarship, making the building a type of active archive.
