Paris’s trendy 3rd arrondissement has just gained a new cultural playground with the renaissance of a dormant historic monument, the Carreau du Temple, following more than four years of restoration. Saint Laurent has already booked the space for its fashion show on March 3, while the site’s March-to-June calendar of events features an eclectic lineup of multidisciplinary happenings spanning theater, circus, art, sport, music, fashion, and dance. They include a “twisted” adaptation of “Twelfth Night” by André Markowicz and Bérangère Jannelle, and “Drawing Now,” a five-day event where 85 galleries selected by a jury of personalities from the art world will present contemporary drawings by some 400 artists. The site, which calls to mind New York’s Park Avenue Amory — another historic building that was repurposed in 2006 as a cultural institution and hosts immersive performance productions and large-scale installations — officially opens on April 25, with performances by Malian singer-songwriter SalifKeita and Canadian singer Mélissa Laveaux.
Behind the accomplished redesign of the Carreau du Temple — a listed monument originally used to sell clothing and the last remains of the Temple market, which was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century — is Jean-François Milou and his agency, Studio Milou Architecture. Known for mixing classicism with a contemporary aesthetic, the company has worked on a number of heritage restoration projects in France and abroad, particularly in Asia, including the National Art Gallery in Singapore, where two major historical monuments are being transformed into a museum of modern and contemporary art dedicated to the arts of Southeast Asia.
The Carreau du Temple building is one of the few surviving structures from the 19th-century tradition of metal-framed architecture in Paris, echoing the iconic design of Les Halles, which was demolished in the 1970s, using steel, glass, and brick with a zinc roof covering.
Milou’s aim was to emphasize the refinement of the existing structure and reduce its apparent weightiness by opening it up to light and to the gaze of pedestrians. He demolished the original masonry walls and replaced them with steel and glass grills to make the site transparent at night. Oak figures among the main design materials, offering a warm contrast to the building’s metal structure.
The site’s central nave remains intact, serving as an orientation space for activities in two neighboring halls, including an auditorium with a seating capacity of 250. The ground floor, which boasts a bar and terrace, can be opened up for various activities such as fashion shows. A new basement is dedicated to sports like martial arts and dance, and the building’s other features include a gymnasium and a recording studio. The site measures around 70,000 square feet in total.
Other France-based projects by Studio Milou Architecture include the Burial Mounds Museum in Bougon, built in the oldest necropolis in Europe; La Cité de la Mer aquarium in Cherbourg (2002), housed in the city’s former harbor building; and the National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse (2006), located within a former wool spinning factory listed on the French register of historic monuments.
