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Nathalie Criniere chosen to create the design for Louvre Abu Dhabi
Nathalie Criniere was awarded the project through a competition among six invited design firms.
- Staff report
- Published: 23:38 January 7, 2009
- An artist's impression of what the Louvre Abu Dhabi will look like once it is complete.
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
Dubai: Agence France-Museums, in partnership with Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), on Wednesday said, the firm of Nathalie Criniere has been selected to create the design for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, one of the five major institutions being planned for Abu Dhabi's Sa'adiyat Island Cultural District.
Nathalie Criniere was awarded the project through a competition among six invited design firms.
The 24,000 square metres (260,000 square feet) museum will include 6,000 square metres of galleries devoted to permanent installations and 2,000 square metres reserved for temporary exhibitions.
The exhibitions in the permanent galleries will be drawn from the collections of the Louvre and other eminent French public museums and cultural institutions, including Centre Pompidou, Chateau de Versailles, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Rodin and Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
Over time, the Louvre Abu Dhabi will also develop its own distinctive permanent collection.
In addition to conceiving the design of the permanent collection galleries and integrating it with the architectural design by Jean Nouvel, Nathalie Criniere will develop a graphic identity for the Louvre Abu Dhabi and design the lighting, curatorial and directional signage and other multimedia elements.
The exhibition design competition was organised by Agence France-Museums, which is implementing the agreement between the governments of France and Abu Dhabi that have established the Louvre Abu Dhabi and TDIC, the developer of Sa'adiyat Island into a signature cultural, leisure and residential destination.
The competition jury panel was chaired by Shaikh Sultan Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, chairman of TDIC, and included Henri Loyrette, director of the Musee du Louvre; Bruno Maquart, general director of Agence France-Museums; Jean Nouvel, architect and Lee Tabler, CEO of TDIC.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is being developed through a 30-year accord between the governments of France and Abu Dhabi.
Housed in an extraordinary building, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is scheduled to open its doors in 2012-2013, it will present important archaeological artifacts and major works of fine arts and decorative arts from cultures around the world and from all historic periods.
"In partnership with the French Government and Agence France-Museums, we are moving steadily towards realising the Louvre Abu Dhabi," said Shaikh Sultan. "We look forward to continuing this momentum and breaking ground for the museum in the first half of 2009."
Nathalie Criniere has conceived a design that will bring these works to life, while merging seamlessly with an architecture that Jean Nouvel has described as an "island on the island" - a micro-city of small buildings, ponds and landscaping, covered with a lacy dome, "which lets a diffused, light come through in the best tradition of great Arabian architecture."
Among Nathalie Criniere's recent projects are the designs for the "Marie Antoinette" in Paris and the "L'age d'or des sciences Arabes" in Algeria.
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