The Museum of the Human Body
The Museum of the Human Body takes shape in urban development that aims to become a major focus of the city of Montpellier. Opposite to the Georges Charpak Park and also to the monumental new town-hall, the project tries to link the site development that surrounds it. Indeed, the proposal has to find porosity with the park and makes this place a pivot point that combines the urban density with the tranquility of the park.
Based on the site force line, the project is articulated with the park by flexible forms that guide a flow along its strong lines. A flow as a continuous movement, a gradual discovery of the museum and its collections.
In its urban insertion, the project proposes a re-oriented forecourt to direct visitors arriving from the north of the plot to a main access directly related to the park. It takes place as a connector between the city and the park, between urban landscaped forecourt of the north façade and the south slope.
In this way, the building stretches generating a cross- flow to create a path in front of the park. The ‘parvis’ along the street Joan Miro offers an access a level higher than the level of the park. It serves the event spaces - room gala / reception and auditorium - and can be related to the museum or detached, depending on activities.
Extending on two levels, the surface of the lobby is more generous than expected in order to celebrate the opening between the square and the park and to organize the program elements around this large atrium.
The lines that trace the landscape define the movement of the building. The facade is developed in a successive slip of land lines to expose each level with an opening to the sky. By an open and obstruent rhythm, alternately vertical and horizontal, the facade aims to control the light direction and its quality. It also allows a flexibility to accommodate the diverse needs of the museum project: from the luminous hall, welcoming and open, until the fully opaque exhibition spaces. Between the city and the park, the facade, like a skin, defines and regulates relationships from the interior spaces to the exterior environment. On the ground floor, by the continuity of the site topography, the facade leaves the space slip into the main entrance. In the atrium and galleries, the facade envelops the museum to protect it from the sun as a filter, the sought light passing through its pores. This is the skin of the building that defines a breathing interior, with opening views and light slits to create specific atmospheres.
The program of museum offers a varied choice of activities and uses. The museum project and the events center are organized to optimize the reception and circulation spaces. For the flexibility of uses, independent accesses are set up to the museum, between the main hall, restaurant and administrative offices. To release a large reception area, the program is arranged in order to optimize its functionality. All rooms can be delivered by a single logistics hub. Each element is serviced by single core that allows the circulation for wheelchair people and that is a structural support to release the trays in search of flexibility through the building.
