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Architects: SAME architectes
- Area: 1023 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:11h45
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Manufacturers: Alexandre Tellier, Celine Wright, Chiaki KOKAMI, Clémentine Messié, Cyril Dennery, Design Market, Galerie 44, HAY, O LUCE, Objet Vagabond, Talka Decor
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Lead Architect: Marc-Antoine Servella
Text description provided by the architects. Located within the Musée Bourdelle, above the sculptor's atelier, this new venue for Parisian gastronomy brings back the domestic character of the former apartment of Rhodia Bourdelle and Michel Dufet. The new café-restaurant of the museum, named Rhodia after Bourdelle's daughter, aspires to be a culinary escape for museum visitors, employees, and residents of the Montparnasse neighborhood. Inside, the luminous yellow and white setting, restored to its original state by Paris Musées, is the playground for a scenography, furniture, and decoration project.
Taking a holistic approach, SAME collaborates with designers and craftsmen to create a unique atmosphere, reflecting the life and work of Antoine Bourdelle, while offering a relaxing spatial experience after visiting the museum. The project focuses on the design of custom-made pieces of furniture. Semicircular travertine tables are placed at the four cardinal points of the restaurant, hosting two to three people. As for the center of the room, it is dominated by two large family tables, hosting up to 8 people, made in ceramic and wood. The latter, whose legs have been shaped using a vernacular method by ceramist Cyril Dennery, play on the earthy material to become organic support for the oak tabletops.
Geo-based materials, such as stone, clay, and wood are chosen as an ode to the sculptural practice of Antoine Bourdelle. As for the space, it combines touches of modernism with 1950s vintage design chairs signed by Olavi Hänninen and Pierre Gautier Delaye, and contemporary design with the contribution of Céline Wright for the lighting fixtures handmade in the Parisian region. The restaurant features an L-shaped terrace overlooking the museum's front garden. The outdoor metal furniture, sober and minimal in terms of its design, highlights the artworks on display and the rich materiality of the building. This awareness of place combined with the present helps to create a link between the glorious history and radiant future of the new Le Rhodia restaurant.
