SANAA

renovation of La Samaritaine . Paris

SANAA . la samaritaine

Over the years, the halls, whose original function was to unite the floors of the department store, illuminating the overflowing sales areas and allowing them to breathe, were successively filled in, to the detriment of the distribution of space within the building.

A less dense site
SANAA’s plan reverses this trend, which has led to a building that would be very difficult to operate, with a vision of great clarity. Inspired by the Jourdain hall, the historic and iconic centre of gravity of Store 2, huge courtyard-patios lit by natural daylight will be created at the centre of the Rivoli block and the Jourdain-Plateaux building.

The spirit of a Paris alley
A passageway between these three successive individual courtyards will pass through the two blocks, ranging between the contemporary (Rivoli, Jourdain-Plateaux) and the historic (Jourdain-Verrière).
The three courtyards, each unique in design and volume, constitute three separate architectural events that provide the rhythm for the walkway leading shoppers, passers-by and strollers from the Rue de Rivoli to the Quai du Louvre.
A second iconic façade in the Rue de Rivoli
The site’s rebirth will be an opportunity to complete Frantz Jourdain’s unfinished project to give La Samaritaine a single, immediately recognisable façade in the Rue de Rivoli to echo the iconic façade on the Quai du Louvre. The SANAA plan takes up the Samaritaine project at the very point where it was interrupted, with an innovative renewal of the Samaritaine image within Paris’ public space.
A marriage of periods
The architectural identity of the new Samaritaine emerges from a dialogue between conservation and creation, a marriage of the old and the new. Alongside the Art Nouveau and Art Deco architectural heritage left by architects Jourdain and Sauvage, which will be restored to their former glory, the contemporary architecture of the future Rivoli block reflects the boldness and spirit of innovation that have always been the guiding principle of La Samaritaine’s evolution since it was founded.