The new architectural wings of the Hôtel de Galliffet will be enigmatic and surprising appearances.

Logics of composition, materials and formal repertoire push the architectural bodies towards an expressive vocabulary for which the terms of lightness and permeability prevail.

The strategy of inclusion aims to give the new buildings a kind of perceptive dematerialization; this way proceeding the partial clogging of the courts will assume a character of agreement and co-operation rather than imposition.

The two architectural bodies openly cite the great Parisian architectures of transparency, made of steel and glass: precious facades just as a tissue of amber smoked glass protect spaces for which the direct visual relationship with the outside is to be a decisive added value.

Shading crystal “slabs”, all dimensionally and formally identical throughout the facades, build up the impression of changing, mysterious and someway indecipherable objects. The glass elements, alternating in different depths and ledges, draw patterns and three-dimensional warps.

The precise rigor of the design establishes a relationship of complementarity showing respect towards the existing historical presences.

The fast pace of vertical lines speaks a silent conversation with the seven-nineteenth-century facades; theories of line-balconies cite the beautiful Parisian railings; crystal elements reflect and multiply fronts and open spaces giving back the observer layered and particle images of a dream-like consistency.

By day, the buildings will absorb the skies and colors of Paris; At night, they will become amazing lanterns of soft light.

Chronology: 2017 Competition Project

Category: Public Buildings, culture

Project Team: Tomas Ghisellini, Alice Marzola, Lucrezia Alemanno

Collaborators: Daniele Francesco Petralia, Salvatore Scandurra