In the XXth century, a monument tailor made for Picasso
A restricted call for proposals was requested in 1976 from several architects to evaluate and define the way in which the Musée Picasso could be installed in the Hôtel Salé while fulfilling all of the set goals.
Architects Castro, Monge, Scarpa, and Simounet were invited to offer their suggestions. All the projects shared a common concern for preserving the building's original architecture, although they met the program's requirements in different ways. Three of them proposed to add on new sections to the building, which would have housed the essential part of the collections. Simounet, on the other hand, aimed to fit the museum within the existing mansion's walls, rejecting any substantial change to the original building. "Within this heterogeneous labyrinth, through vestibules, mezzanines, the series of drawing rooms, cluttered halls, incongruous added heights, run-down outbuildings, and abandoned basements, a 'natural' itinerary emerges." In his project, the main building received the permanent collection in the grand formal halls on the ground floor and in the renovated basement areas. The existing mezzanine spaces were kept to break up certain exceedingly large volumes, creating more intimate spaces for small-format works.
Finally, the design for the Musée Picasso was entrusted to Roland Simounet, who kept the main staircase, the volumes, the doors, and the cornices in the grand drawing rooms, while conceiving the appropriate spaces to house the Picasso dation and provide access for researchers to the adjoining premises where the painter's drawings and archives would be held, without forgetting the workshops and storage areas. "To fulfill all the museum's new requirements, I will use the existing openings and stairs. At the heart of the building, the grand staircase rules supreme, in all its excess and its glory: it welcomes one in for the visit, which begins on the first floor." To Simounet, the design for the palace was obvious: its layout, its structure, and its forms offered enough particularities to serve as the basis for all the key choices. An analysis of the existing surfaces and spaces made it apparent that the entire required program could unfold within the shell of the existing building, without extending it any further. Both "respecting and transforming the place, the Hôtel Salé springs back to life."
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Summary