Hôtel de Coulanges

AIM Hanemian Architects responded to a competitive tender from the City of Paris for Innovative Urban Projects to ‘Reinvent Paris’. The Agency proposed to renovate and give new life to the Hotel de Coulanges in the Marais district.

The project team consisted of REA historians Pascal Simonetti and Valérie Noelle Jouffre teaming up with specialist in the lifestyle of earlier times Fabrice Ouziel, INRA scientist and father of the “Note-by-Note” style of cuisine Hervé This, Michelin-starred chef David Toutain, and Anthony Mulsant, a specialist in events organizing and Associate President of Master Image Programmes and of Saint-Gobain with its Domolab Research Centre. The AIM Hanemian Architects project was for an avant-garde and hopefully serendipitous type of place, where the future could be tried out in a research atmosphere at the interface between hotel-keeping and restauration.

The architectural side of the project rises to the occasion. From a long way off passers-by in the street are surprised by a rainbow hovering above the building generated by a sheet of water and created either by the sun or by a lighting system. This is how you first become aware of the project in the rue des Francs-Bourgeois. On getting closer your second surprise is to see a “courtyard in the sky”, i.e. the building being reflected upside down on ETFE sheets. This space is both open to all and sheltered, designed to be a hub for extraordinary events. The paving of the court is lighted to resemble a star-clustered sky above guiding visitors to the entrances.

The work of IRCAC, the new research centre of INRA for the “Note-by-Note” concept is illustrated on the walls by illuminated calligraphy. In the garden the front elevation of the building has a vertical vegetable garden growing up it, complete with a noria watering system. There will be plenty of ‘material’ here for the Chef and the researchers. Within the hotel guests can sleep in a range of themed suites from a 17th century décor to a space station with hamacs.

This is a magic and exceptional place to raise your consciousness as never before.