Arab World Institute
From WikiArquitectura - Buildings of the World
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[edit] Introduction
The IMA was the idea of a group of Arab countries which wanted to create a civic center to disseminate Arab culture and build relationships with the French, because this country has a large Arab population.
Thus, in 1981, it organized a competition to choose the project that best suited its claims. Finally, the French architect Jean Nouvel (born 1945) with Gilbert & Lezen Pierre Soria & Architecture Studio won the contest, starting the construction of the building in 1984 and being opened in 1987.
It is part of an overall plan for urban development carried out by French President Mitterrand in 1980, which included other works of similar nature.
[edit] Situation
The Arab World Institute (IMA) is at the confluence of the Boulevard Saint Germain to the Seine River, near the bridge leading to the island of St. Louis and a jetty.
[edit] Concept
As a showcase of Arab culture in Paris, the architecture of the institute should take into account many different dialectical relations: those inherent in the site, the border between traditional urban fabric of Paris, the Faubourg Saint-Germain and the fabric of contemporary Université de Jussieu, and linking the different Arab and Western cultures, those related to notions of history and modernity and relations stemming from the ideas of interiority and openness.
The problem was resolved with an urban building that follows the curve in the alignment of the road on the banks of the Seine, respecting the traditional height and size.
The central body of the building, turned toward the college-neighbor, is distanced from it by a large paved plaza - a deep cleft between the two bodies - practiced on a course axis oriented toward Notre Dame, leading to temporary exhibitions and the inner square. The westernmost part of the building leaves the volume as the transparent, white cylindrical tower of the library.
The building reinforces archetypal elements of traditional Arabic architecture: the interior, the treatment of light and filters through racks and overlapping frames. The southern front is the best example of this dual loyalty because it reinterprets a number of commonly used geometric figures in the Arab culture, giving them a contemporary form of mobile lenses, very similar to those of a camera. The game of space-related expansion and contraction; a hall that evokes the great mosques, and a deep sense of the use of reflections, refractions and the effects of light, provide some magic to this place.
[edit] Description
The IMA has a total of eleven floors located above the ground and three underground. The northern part has a total of nine. All are generally low except those that are twofold. Some rooms are double-story height, height and a half with terraces and mezzanines, such as the library and the fourth floor of the north body, where there is a small overhang and terrace. The lobby of the building is in the middle of the southern floor, bounded by four pillars of reinforced concrete. Here are six escalators and elevators, which are a clear gap amounting to all floors.
At the museum, the north, the roof is quite low. Its role is to put the pieces of the museum together. From the fourth floor, the two sides of the building are linked by a strip in the east, as well as two small bridges that have been located at various altitudes. It is on this floor, in the east, that the gap dividing the two parties forms a closed square yard in which there are plants in pots. There are a large underground auditorium and temporary exhibition halls. These units are spread in the south plaza of the IMA.
[edit] Facade
The most interesting windows are those of the IMA south facade. The size and shape of the crystals is exactly like the facade of the north, but in this case, each glass square has a number of photoelectric cells similar to a camera lens that open outside receive less light and vice versa. In each window there is a central photodetector larger than the rest, and smaller, of two different sizes, geometrically arranged in the glass. The opening and closing of these elements gives rise to a shape very similar to those found in the decoration of Arab buildings and was very well received by the Arab owners of the institute.
There are parts of the facade where there are only drawings and orthogonal-like hexagonal cells, which move with wind energy. In this way, the building automatically controls its own light and creates a play of light and reflections on the inside.
[edit] Video
[edit] Drawings
 Situación |
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 Sótano |
 Planta baja |
 Quinto piso |
 Sexto piso |
 Séptimo piso |
 Noveno piso |
Axonométrica |
[edit] Photos by Franco di Capua
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[edit] Photos
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