Omar Take Architectural Consulting - Omar A.Take - Architect ...

ASIAN ART MUSEUM – NICE, FRANCEThe project was the idea of a very dynamic Mayor of Nice, Jacques Medecin who was a greatfriend of Pierre Yves Trémois, a famous French Painter and Sculptor, member of the prestigiousand elite “Academie des Beaux Arts”. Trémois proposed to Mr. Medecin a donation of 300 ofhis own marvelous works and a private collection of Asian Art on the premise that the Museumwould be named: “Musée Donation Tremois”. However, when the building went up, the Mayor’sterm came to an end and the Regional Council changed their mind and decided to turn downTrémois’s donation and convert it instead into a Regional Museum and called it the Asian ArtsMuseum of Nice. I guess the beauty of the Museum seduced the local politicians and media ofNice but I felt sad for my dear friend Trémois who contributed in finding the right design theme forthe Museum, particularly the spiral staircase in the core of the building symbolizing the DNA thatis present in many of his engravings. The central plan is made in the form of a MANDALA with4 square spaces built around a center.In Asia, the Taoist "yin-yang" symbol represents opposition as well as interdependence. This is aproject full of symbolism The fundamental geometrical forms of Japanese tradition; the squaresymbol of the Earth, and the circle symbol of the Sky played an important role in conceiving theMuseum. One of the main architectural concepts was to have a sculptural building looking likeas a swan floating in a lake; we covered entirely the walls and floors with white marble fromCarrara. I was fortunate to personally select the block of marble used to cut the tiles for thewall, floors and stair. We decided to place a large area of the Museum under the level of thewater and were fortunate to work with Ray Elms, one of the greatest structural engineers inLondon who created a very light structure for the cubes that allowed us to achieve our desire togive an the impression that the Museum is floating over the lake. The steps of the spiral stair aremade out of solid marble resting on a concrete spiral beam acting as a spring conceived byElms. The circular volume in the second level detached from the cubes acts as a circular beamresting on a flat beam that sits on 4 columns on the corners of the cubes - a marvelous solution.