HALLE AUX GRAINS

Invited to design the public square and furnishings, exterior and interior, for the new Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection contemporary art museum, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created a wide-ranging project to define each space. Each arrangement has been used to instil a particular atmosphere within its context, and is the result of detailed research and collaboration with a variety of highly skilled manufacturers and craftsmen.

Aware of the delicate harmony of the building’s layers of structure, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec set out to design pieces to furnish and form its spaces, avoiding interference or artifice. This was carefully balanced with a concern for the comfort of visitors. Throughout, spaces have been considered on an almost domestic scale, ensuring ease of use, physical comfort, and fluid functionality with the utmost finesse. Materials and fabrics have been selected for atmosphere and wellbeing, dampening acoustics, softening footfall, capturing light, always with gentle elegance.

On the top floor, beneath the glazed cupola and overlooking all of Paris, mythical Auvergnat chefs Michel and Sébastien Bras have taken their place with the new restaurant the Halle aux Grains. For Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the challenges here were to create an atmosphere of comfort, wonder and to manage and celebrate the natural light that floods the space.

Sound and light are softened for diners using textile partitions and fine, graphic ‘guipure,’ gauze panels that break up the space. The room is punctuated by a series of pieces of colourful glass of the Alcova collection designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for WonderGlass. The colour choice of ochres, greens, and reds represents a celebration of the bountiful light.