Archaeological find: this museum in Sarrebourg is a series of neutral, hermetic containers for a diverse range of artefacts, from Gallo-Roman relics to Chagall drawings

Architectural Review, The, Jan, 2004 by Paul Joubert

Despite the richness and diversity of its historical and archaeological collections, the town of Sarrebourg, in north-east France, never had a proper means of showing them off. The surrounding region of the Sarre valley, near the German border is particularly rich in Gallo-Roman remains, but the town's archives also include a collection of eighteenth-century porcelain and works by Marc Chagall.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Paris-based architect Bernard Desmoulin was asked to design a new building to house this disparate assemblage on a site next to the town's library. The museum forms part of an urban improvement programme and defines a new raised square, animated by a long reflecting pool. Three long, low volumes are placed parallel to each other, like warehouses or industrial sheds. The southernmost one extends out to enclose the square and demarcate a new pedestrian through route. On the two street frontages the new museum is inscrutably hermetic, concealed behind solid planes of concrete and vertical strips of grungy green prepatinated copper, but on the square, it opens up with clear glass walls reflecting and dissolving in the shimmering pool.

Hugging the long north flank of the building, a shallow flight of steps leads from the street to the square, channelling visitors up to the museum entrance.

Overlooking the reflecting pool, the double-height entrance hall is a luminous salon, dominated by a concrete staircase curved like a giant woodshaving linking the two exhibition floors. Alternating intimate rooms with more imposing double-height spaces, the exhibition circuit commences with a small orientation room which leads to the prehistoric collection, before opening up into the focus of the museum, the double-height Gallo-Roman exhibition hall. The ground floor also contains displays on Roman battle campaigns and the Merovingian period, along with a caretaker's flat, which is isolated from the displays and housed in the projecting stub of the longer wing. Upper floors are dedicated to the porcelain and faience collections and Chagall's drawings. En route, the spiral stair acts as a viewing platform for a particularly precious antique tapestry hung on the rear wall of the entrance hall.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Playing off the proto-industrial exterior, a similarly functional spirit pervades the interior. In the main Gallo-Roman exhibition hall, walls of raw concrete form a neutral yet appropriately rugged backdrop for the various objects. Floors are also concrete, painted black and lacquered to a dull sheen. Natural light floods in from a slot cut into the apex of the pitched roof and tactful spotlighting emphasizes particular pieces. The concrete responds to the weathered yet essentially robust character of the archaelogical relics, most of which were exhumed from the surrounding countryside.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

Within an essentially compact plan, the promenade architecturale is assuredly handled, deftly orchestrating changes of scene, scale, light and views. Desmoulin also shows an intelligent affinity for materials that elevates and transforms this provincial museum into a modest civic showpiece.