Inauguration of the Albert Kahn Museum

An historic museum

Albert Kahn moved to Boulogne Billancourt, on the outskirts of Paris, in 1893, first as a tenant in his private mansion, then as an owner after succumbing to the charms of the area. Gradually, he acquired 9 neighboring plots until 1920, creating the garden as we know it today. He devoted his life to creating a garden of "landscape scenes".
Listed as a historic monument since the end of 2015, the site needed to be refurbished to provide a new-generation offering.

The link between Albert Kahn and Japan

This is why the entire site has been completely redesigned to offer a whole new experience. The Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma, was entrusted with the architectural design, in honor of Albert Kahn's special relationship with the land of the rising sun.
The 4-hectare site features a sublime Japanese garden and village, an English garden, a French garden, meadows and forests. The 8 pavilions in the garden have been completely refurbished, and a new building has been added to complete the museum's offering, in full respect of the site's history.
The new 2,000 m² building is inspired by certain concepts of Japanese architecture, such as the Engawa, an intermediary space between two places: in this case, the museum and the garden. The dialogue between these two spaces is achieved through a buffer space composed of noble materials: light wood, bamboo and metal.

setec bâtiment, expert engineering for museums

For setec bâtiment, which was in charge of all the engineering, excluding the structure (see project sheet), this is further confirmation of our position as a major player in the world of culture, and more particularly in museums.
These buildings require a particularly high level of expertise in order to provide the right thermal and hygrometric conditions for the various works of art. At the Musée Albert Kahn, a collection of 72,000 colorized autochromes and 180,000 meters of silent film had to be preserved in perfect conditions. Autochrome is the first industrial color photographic reproduction process, used in the early 20th century. Photographic media are particularly sensitive to humidity and temperature variations, so this was a key issue.
setec bâtiment was also supported by setec opency (OPC) and setec hydratec (geothermal expert), both part of the setec group.

Key figures:

• 4,600 m²: total surface area of the museum
• 2,300 m²: surface area of Kengo Kuma's new building
• 8 renovated buildings (7 heritage buildings on the site and the old gallery)
• 3 traditional Japanese houses restored
• 16 assignments carried out (decontamination, asbestos removal, lead removal, high and low voltage, plumbing, fire protection, HVAC-D, VRD, lifting equipment, fire safety, accessibility, SSI coordination, environmental project management, restoration and overall cost).

Find out more:

• Discover the project sheet.
• Visit the departmental museum website.