Aside from displaying reproductions of cave paintings that date back over 17,000 years, the museum seeks to enhance the landscape and give the region a cultural gem.
The only visible portion of the building in the landscape is a narrow band of 200 meters and amber tones; there, a clay ramp enclosed in polished concrete walls leads to the recreation of the Paleolithic cave and its paintings... [+]
The museum is located in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, at the boundary of two divergent landscapes: a dense woodland, and the agricultural land of Vézère valley, which has been shaped by human activities and opens up to the sky. The museum
The building’s form is carved out of a stone prism, faceting the surfaces and perforating the interior to let natural light come in through courtyards and skylights, which organize the indoor exhibition itineraries...
A gentle slope leads visitors from a large outdoor space to the interior of the building. Once inside, a series of translucent screens nuance the intensity of the shadows, making reference to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave...
The proposal tries to reduce the presence of the building to a single artistic gesture. It conceals all the spaces under the forest except for a narrow band of 200 meters that at night lights up, taking on amber hues that herald its presence from the
Like a crack in the ground, the project finds its place along the boundary of two different landscapes: the wooded hill and the valley. In this partially burrowed position, the exhibition spaces recreate the experience of exploring a cave...
