From Jouy-en-Josas to Raspail, and soon to the Palais-Royal: the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art is writing a new chapter in its architectural history. Jean Nouvel, the architect behind its two most recent transformations, is orchestrating the transition from a translucent setting to a modular structure at the heart of the Haussmannian fabric. An investigation into a change of scale, context, and vision.
When the Cartier Foundation leaves its iconic glass building on Boulevard Raspail at the end of 2025, it will not only be turning a page geographically, but also architecturally and symbolically. Housed since 1994 in a building conceived by Jean Nouvel as a utopia of transparency, the institution is preparing to move back into a location steeped in history, a stone's throw from the Louvre, on Place du Palais-Royal. This cultural re-anchoring within the Parisian Haussmannian fabric is once again being led by Jean Nouvel. The result: a reinvented exhibition space, at the crossroads of heritage and museographic innovation. The building on Boulevard Raspail, completed in 1994, was hailed as an architectural feat: a diaphanous structure of 1,200 square meters, almost without walls, entirely modular, designed as a space of freedom for artists. Nouvel abolished the boundary between inside and outside, echoing Lothar Baumgarten's "Theatrum Botanicum" garden. But this radical gesture, long celebrated for the scenographic flexibility it generated, is now revealing its limitations. Tested by time and growing ambitions, the space is proving constrained: in terms of capacity, accessibility, and adaptation to recent museum technologies.
Why relocate? The Cartier Foundation's move is not a whim, but a strategic refocusing. Located at 2 Place du Palais-Royal, the new site occupies the former Grand Hôtel du Louvre, which later housed the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store before becoming the Louvre des Antiquaires (Louvre of Antiquaries). This complex, inaugurated in 1855 as part of the Haussmannian renovations initiated by Napoleon III, stands in direct dialogue with the Louvre. A prestigious site, but a challenging one: how to incorporate avant-garde architecture without clashing with the building's history?
Jean Nouvel responds with a work of grafting and friction. He envisions an exhibition building inserted into the existing structure, a deliberate fusion with its historical depth. The glazed bays running along the façades facing the Place du Palais-Royal, the Rue de Rivoli, and the Rue Saint-Honoré reveal a dynamic scenography to passersby. Unlike Raspail, here, transparency is no longer a manifesto; it is one layer among others, a palimpsest.
The new building spans 8,500 square meters accessible to the public, including 6,500 square meters of exhibition space. Nouvel introduced a major innovation: five mobile platforms—totaling 1,200 square meters—allowing for the modulation of volumes and heights, up to 11 meters, according to the artworks and artists. This system creates a dynamic, fluid space: pathways become trajectories, ceilings rise or disappear. The building is conceived as a "display machine," in the vein of Cedric Price's exhibitions or the early days of the Centre Pompidou.
The 1,200-square-meter walkways offer lateral viewpoints, breaking the uniformity of a frontal perspective. The viewer is constantly in motion, simultaneously overlooking, immersed, or positioned to the side. This architectural scenography responds to the diversity of contemporary artistic practices, from immersive installations to performances.
If Jean Nouvel was a visionary in 1994, he becomes a surgeon in 2025. Where Raspail proclaimed the dissolution of boundaries, the Palais-Royal explores their reconfiguration. In both cases, the architectural gesture aligns with the artistic project: to offer a space of freedom and transformation. Nouvel does not simply replicate Raspail; he surpasses him by integrating the heritage element and introducing a mechanized spatiality.
In his own words, "a place like this demands audacity, a courage that artists might not demonstrate in other institutional settings." What he invents here is not only evident in the concrete or the stone, but also in the exhibition system itself, in its capacity to accommodate the unpredictable.
In its forty-year history, the Cartier Foundation has evolved in three stages: first as a laboratory in Jouy-en-Josas, then as a flagship institution in Raspail, and finally as a constantly evolving infrastructure in the Palais-Royal. At each stage, the architecture has embodied a form of commitment: to artistic freedom, to the interdisciplinary nature of the institution, and to the invention of new exhibition models.
2, Place du Palais-Royal, Paris 1er
