Podcast. How the BNF reinvested its historic library in the center of Paris

To kick off this new season of the podcast World “Interesting Archi”, produced in partnership with the City of architecture and heritagedirection 2^e district of Paris. There stands the historic site of the National Library of France (BNF), called the Richelieu Quadrilateral. Three centuries old, it has seen many architects pass by, who have enlarged and refurbished it little by little. Focus on the latest project, led by the architects Bruno Gaudin and Virginie Bregal. On this site, of almost 60,000 square meters, reorganized and brought up to standard, documents, researchers and the general public now rub shoulders.

Proud of its history, has the Quadrilatère Richelieu found the coherence and unity it lacked? Haven’t the arrangements made distorted this historic place? Elements of response in this podcast, with the report of the journalist Marjolaine Koch and the debate of the critical meeting of the City of architecture and heritage.

It’s a story… And first a bit of geography. If the whole BNF Richelieu is called a “quadrilateral” because it is surrounded by four streets: rue Vivienne in front, rue de Richelieu in the back, rue Colbert and rue des Petits-Champs on the sides. At the heart of this rectangle: several buildings erected from the 17th^e century to house the Royal Library. Because, since Charles V, sovereigns have been accustomed to collecting books. The practice even became a principle when Francis I^er, in 1537, created the “legal deposit”, ie the obligation made to any bookseller and printer to deposit at the castle of Blois a copy of each book put on sale in the kingdom. Logically, the place quickly ran out… especially at the Quadrilateral of the BNF.

Endless, this expansion has led the State to create an additional site: François-Mitterrand, located in the 13^e district of Paris. Four L-shaped towers, each depicting an open book. Inaugurated in 1995 by the socialist president a few weeks before his departure from the Elysée, this library allowed a new organization for the storage of documents, but also for researchers to continue their work, while the historic site was preparing for a necessary overhaul.

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Today. After twelve years of work, no spectacular changes at the BNF Richelieu, with the exception of the entrance. The original main staircase has been replaced by a monumental aerial aluminum helix, which leads to the Oval room, the place’s emblematic reading room. A choice justified by Laurence Engel, director of the BNF, by the desire for a “facilitated circulation, transparency, openness to the public space, but also to the interior of the building”. A desire shared by the architect duo Bruno Gaudin and Virginie Brégal, who made sure to connect the different spaces. “Two entrances – one on the courtyard side and one on the garden side, like in the theater – bring transversality, comments the first. An intellectual transversality, between the disciplines, the different fields of research and knowledge, but also between the public, curious or enlightened amateurs, and the researchers. »

In the Oval room, silence reigns: this is where some 9,000 free access comic book titles are located. For its part, the sublime Labrouste reading room, named after the architect who designed it in 1868, houses long rows of desks lit by black and blue-green floor lamps. To complete their work, the architects finally intervened in the “stores”, storage areas for the works. They removed the half-storeys that had been added in the past to multiply the storage, and removed the boxes that concealed the structures, thus revealing “the beauty of the very thin sheets of metal between the wooden columns, emphasizes Bruno Gaudin, yet originally conceived for functionalist, rationalist reasons”.

The opinion of the experts. On the occasion of critical meetings of the City of Architecture and Heritage, architects and journalists discussed the interest of the place and its rehabilitation, under the leadership of Francis Rambert, director of the department of architectural creation at the Cité. The architect and journalist Philippe Trétiack is full of praise for the work of his colleagues at the BNF. He notes that“It was not a question of rehabilitating, but of transforming the building. In this set, there were seventy-two level differences, hence the complexity. There are twenty left. Public access required a modification of the actions of the staff, who were not used to it. This has created conflicts, strikes… [Bruno Gaudin et Virginie Brégal] say they did anything but spectacular. In truth, it is, but it is not seen! »

Sophie Trelcat, journalist specializing in architecture, appreciates and greets “a work which, in fact, cannot be seen. The goal was to bring it up to standard. The architectural signature is therefore played through the staircase, the lights, the walkway. It is a technical work, and all the same palpable, in particular on the light and the fluidity of circulation. We understand all the complexity of the project, which extends over a long period of time. » Isabelle Regnier, from World, no less enthusiastic. “It is a total glare, she rejoices. Discovering this treasure, a temple of knowledge that looks like a ballroom or a palace from One Thousand and One Nights, is fabulous. » If the journalist regrets a lack of fluidity in the movement of BNF employees, visible to visitors, she appreciates that this heritage is more open to the public. “The opposite of devitalization. It is a moving and joyful gesture. »