Podcast. How Lausanne has created a real “arts district”

For the second episode of its season 2, the podcast “Interesting Archi”, produced in partnership with the City of Architecture and Heritage, takes you to Switzerland. On the edge of Lausanne station, a veritable “arts district” has taken shape. It is the association of three Vaudois cultural institutions that enabled this project to emerge: the Cantonal Museum of Fine Artsthat of photography (Elysee pictures) and that of design and contemporary applied arts (the mudac). Three museums with different histories and identities, which have pooled their resources to come together, under the guidance of the architects of the Barcelona agency Barozzi Veiga initially, and the Portuguese agency Mateus Areas in a second. Called “Platform 10”, the complex extends over 25,000 m² along the railway tracks, in place of former railway warehouses.

Is this association convincing? Has Lausanne succeeded in its cultural gamble? Elements of response in this podcast with the report of the journalist Clément Baudet and the debate of the critical meeting of the City of architecture and heritage.

Find all the episodes of the “Interesting Archi” podcast here.

It’s a story. The collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, created in 1841, constantly growing, the question of building a new space to accommodate them arose in 1999. But where? Two years later, the choice of site stopped at Bellerive, on the shores of Lake Geneva. An international architectural competition is launched, which is won by a Zurich office. The ace. In 2008, the granting of a study credit to finalize the project was refused by popular vote, and a new site was elected: located opposite the Lausanne station, it was a former warehouse for locomotives. The competition was won this time by the Barozzi Veiga office, which has already distinguished itself in cultural matters in its city of Barcelona, ​​but also in Chicago, Prague, Brussels, Oslo, Bordeaux… It was finally in 2012 that the decision was taken to create, beyond this new space for the fine arts, a true district of the visual arts in Lausanne. The design of a second building, linked to the first and devoted to design and photography, was then entrusted to the Portuguese architect duo Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus.

Today. More than a shared site dedicated solely to exhibitions of painting, design and photography, Platform 10 is intended to be a living space. “We want this district to invite you to stroll”, engages Patrick Gyger, director of the ensemble. However, the structure also clearly asserts its identity and function. “It’s a very imposing parallelepiped, a hieratic, iconic building that says: ‘I am a museum’. »

In the vast hall, a glass roof, the last vestige of the industrial past of the place, bathes the space in natural light and gives a view of the lower part of the city. However, everywhere in the rooms where the oldest works, and therefore the most fragile, are housed, work has been carried out to limit the light. A security constraint has almost turned into an asset: “Explosive materials pass through the railways, explains Patrick Gyger. Heritage protection has forced architects to limit glazed openings. » Traffic between the different museum spaces is therefore made according to the entrances and exits in the dark, until getting lost… and falling on the restoration and framing workshops, where the public can observe the professionals at work. .

Inaugurated in June 2022, Platform 10 continues to evolve: the choice of access via a concrete esplanade has proved unwise in times of global warming. Greening works are in progress.

The opinion of the experts. On the occasion of critical meetings of the City of Architecture and Heritage, architects and journalists debated under the leadership of Francis Rambert, director of the department of architectural creation at the Cité. Isabelle Regnier, from Worldappreciates the very choice of the site: “There is something very attractive in this relationship between the old galleries of the SNCF, the rails, and the enormous Museum of Fine Arts, which forms a wall between the city and the rails. We value a wasteland. Urbanly, it is quite rich and fertile. » The journalist also says she was seduced by the building of the Aires Mateus brothers, which “reveals surprises. Everything is in angles, triangles, diagonals. » “It is both a volume and a fragmented monolith, confirms architect and teacher Richard Scoffier. The museum that calls for light [celui du design] opens up to the sky, and he who does not need it [celui de la photo] sinks into the ground. »

Architect and journalist Philippe Trétiack appreciates a building that has “something of origami, of folding, with the idea of ​​upside-down mountains”. And note: “I think it’s the biggest museum operation in Europe, in terms of size. In Switzerland, there is a struggle between Geneva and Lausanne to be the Swiss French-speaking capital. This project is part of this conflict and takes a position in this debate. »