Abstract
Museums are buildings that come in all shapes and sizes. It's difficult to identify a specific typology. One might rather speak of a fluid typology.
I've observed that when buildings are freed from their original function and transformed into museums, they take on greater independence, because they are employed, but also because the museum occupies a privileged place in the hierarchy of public buildings.
The museum doesn't have to be a narcissistic object. It's not the museum that people come to see first and foremost: it's the collection. It doesn't have to be an object of contemplation in itself, but a "place of enjoyment", yes! I mean that its space can be an occasion for pleasure and play. Architecture is not absent from this enjoyment, but architecture as space and not, a priori, as a visible form or object.
Reuse of an existing building or a new object: two competing theses, two competing strategies?
By creating museums out of existing buildings, I wanted to develop the concept of the museum and propose a new (fluid) typology, capable of changing the ritual of the visit and behavior. To give the very word "museum" a new content.
The museums of Orsay, Quimper, Roubaix and Valence gave me the opportunity to put these ideas into practice.
