La Piscine had been left neglected for several years and a public contest was held for architects to come up with a design for the space. In 1994 the winner was chosen - Jean-Paul Phlippon, already famous for his conversion of the former Gare d’Orsay in Paris into the stunning Musée d’Orsay in 1979 (voted world’s top museum by Trip Advisor Traveller Choice Awards 2018) and the Musée des Beaux Arts, Quimper, Brittany in 1993.
Philippon’s plans for La Piscine centred around keeping the integrity and authenticity of the much-loved swimming pool. “I wanted to keep the basin of water” he says - and it is now the heart of the museum. “But I narrowed it to make room for the artworks. I created pontoons alongside with ceramic lining created from the original elaborate mosaics. Thousands and thousands of tiny pieces were all carefully preserved. Some of the original changing rooms were kept, others were dismantled. It was like a giant Lego game putting all the pieces together and reconstructing it”.
In 2001 the council allocated a former textile factory building to be part of the museum as well, one of the original walls still stands as a memorial to the old building after part of it was demolished to let light in. It is, says Philippon, one of his favourite aspects. “In my design, I wanted people to be able to circulate easily and to see the collection as it should be seen, it was an important aspect of the museum”.
Left, the atelier of Henri Bouchard, recreated from his original studio in Paris; above left La Piscine in the 1930s, above right, La Piscine today