Rehabilitation - Pierre-Antoine Gatier
Stained glass D.Geronazzo © Succession Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris et ADAGP, Paris)
The private mansion and studio of Paul Follot, Rue Schoelcher, built between 1912-1914 with the help of Pierre Selmersheim, represents a précis of the artist’s decorative career and, in broad terms, one of the most important stylistic transitions of the 20th century. While some of the rooms in the apartments refer to art nouveau, others already reflect the art deco spirit. However, it would appear that the main decorative and furniture collection of the building was completed prior to the 1914 war.
The analysis of the architecture and the decorative register resulted in a restoration project whose main concern – through a reasoned approach – was to respond to the historic identity of the building and its future function, which was to participate wholly in its identity.
The restoration project profoundly examines the problematics relating to the building itself, the conservation of the materials of an architecture lavishly wrought in the first instance, in both its materiality and in the multiplicity of details of execution, and whose current status (classification and listing as an historic monument) and future status (renovation as an Institute for the Giacometti Foundation) constitute an evolution.
Our overarching stylistic choice has also been that of re-establishing the architectural and volumetric characteristics present during the renovation of the apartment by Paul Follot, while also respecting evolutions dictated by the division into co-ownership of the mansion. This approach of conservation restoration is thus part of the overall enhancement of the monument’s historic character. All of the original decor will be restored and preserved while it is updated (entrance vestibule, lounge, and dining room) or preserved beneath the modern paintwork (studio).
In addition, the conservation restoration undertaken here will wholly integrate the conditions required for the occupation of the premises by the Giacometti Institute, respecting the principles of reversibility and limiting heavy interventions on conservation elements only to what is strictly necessary. The function-related problematics (opening to the public, security, climate control, etc.) will also be taken into account.
Pierre-Antoine Gatier
Pierre-Antoine Gatier - Chief Architect of Monuments Historiques
Born in 1959, he became a DPLG architect in 1984 in Paris, after studying at the École du Louvre in 1981 and graduating in museology in 1983. In 1990, he became the chief architect of Monuments Historiques and is currently responsible for the Alpes-Maritimes and Var regions and the Chantilly Domain. In 2003, he was elected inspector general of Monuments Historiques in the Rhône-Alpes and Lorraine regions, and of France’s overseas territories. He teaches the history and restoration of reinforced concrete and the history of metal at the Centre des Hautes Études de Chaillot. He has led several missions abroad to provide his expertise: Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Pakistan, Haiti, the United States, the Congo, Croatia, Mali, and Morocco. He is a member of the Académie d'architecture, chairman of Icomos France, and the winner of the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship.
In 2017, he was in charge of renovations for the Opéra Comique.
