The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, already relocated to 2 Place du Palais-Royal, will officially open its doors on 25 October 2025 inside a 19th-century building radically reimagined by Jean Nouvel.
Developed in collaboration with Cartier Architecture and Construction, the new architectural project redefines the exhibition space, pushing the concept of museum dynamism and spatial flexibility to the extreme.
A Radical Transformation Behind a Historic Façade
Nouvel’s intervention unfolds inside a Haussmannian block that formerly housed the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, later transformed into department stores and eventually the Louvre des Antiquaires. The historic façade has been entirely preserved, but behind it lies an entirely new architectural organism: a true theatrical machine made of five movable steel platforms, capable of generating continuously reconfigurable exhibition volumes.
Each of these liftable slabs (250 sqm and 250 tons each), developed with specialists in movable bridges and stage machinery, operates on a system of cables and pulleys powered by synchronized electric motors. The result is a void-based, mobile, and adaptable space, allowing each exhibition to assume a unique configuration.
An Active and Transparent Void
Jean Nouvel’s vision is clear: "The focus of the architectural project was to reveal the void—its depth, its height, its presence. It is no longer about building space, but building within the space itself."
Here, the void becomes the true protagonist: no more static walls, floors, or ceilings, but a dynamic grid where every element is mobile and transformable. Glass ceilings with motorized louvers allow natural light to enter selectively. The new full-height glass façades along Rue de Rivoli and Rue Saint-Honoré dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior, while a 150-meter-long glass canopy reconnects the historic arcades to the urban fabric of Paris.
A Museum Machine Like No Other
The new space is designed as a functional museum machine, capable of adapting to every curatorial need—height, light, visibility, orientation.
"Our goal was to offer what would be impossible elsewhere: to reinvent the very way we exhibit," writes Nouvel.
Each platform can support heavy artworks and generate compressed or soaring spaces, theatrical sets or meditative atmospheres.
In compliance with strict fire and structural regulations, the project tackled unprecedented engineering challenges: installing such a large-scale mobile system in a listed building required entirely novel solutions.
An Urban Fragment that Welcomes the City
For Nouvel, the new Fondation Cartier is not just a museum but "a neighborhood, a place of crossing, of dialogue between eras and disciplines." The building opens itself to the city through a network of transparencies, crossings, and urban views that blur the line between institution and public space.
With its architecture in motion, the Fondation Cartier becomes a device for contemporary art, generating ever-changing experiences. A theatrical machine designed to disorient, surprise, and inspire.
"Every empty space is an opportunity for expression. Every surface, every color, every detail is designed to challenge and inspire the artist," Nouvel concludes.
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All the photos:
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, 2 Place du Palais-Royal, Paris.
© Jean Nouvel / ADAGP, Paris, 2025. Photo © Martin Argyroglo
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