Institut pour la photographie

Lille, France
2019 – 2026 - ONGOING
Status: Design Development
Client: Région hauts-de-france
BERGER&BERGER (lead architect)
Team: Théo Vachon
Collaborators: Bollinger + Grohmann, France (structural engineering), ALTO (MEP), META (acoustics), BMF (cost), les éclaireurs (lighting design), BETIC (utility networks), pierre-emmanuel nyeborg (preventive conservation), Etienne Haller (landscape), Lagneau Architectes (heritage architects)
Surface: 4 500m²

https://www.institut-photo.com/en/

The Institute pour la photographie is designed as a place for resources, exchange, and experimentation, with the aim of developing photographic culture among the general public and supporting research and creation. It is part of an ambitious urban project. It serves as a center of excellence, offering tools that are both relevant and engaged with major contemporary issues. Its scientific and cultural program, based on the complementarity and interactivity of dissemination, conservation, research, education, and publishing, unfolds through a range of effective tools, multiple types of exhibition spaces, and architecture specifically adapted to the conservation and exhibition program.

This project is part of a sustainable city, being developed alongside its existing and historical heritage. It is expressed through two architectural typologies: the first is integrated within two heritage buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the second is composed of two new buildings created specifically for the project. It thus establishes a relationship between a heritage identity and a new architecture that highlights the contemporary character of the site's activities.
The two new, efficient buildings house the programs for conservation, storage, and exhibition of works, which have higher demands in all technical, structural, temperature, humidity, lighting, and preservation aspects.

The architectural design of the Institut pour la photographie creates a series of unique spaces with specific dimensions and characteristics: the mineral courtyards facing rue de Thionville, and the interior gardens planted at the junction of the different buildings.