The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, aims at creating a welcoming world which associates lights and shadows as well as shimmers and calm places in a serene atmosphere. Its objective is to belong to its country, to its history, to its geography, avoiding being either a dull translation of this reality or a pleonasm meaning boredom and convention. It also aims at emphasizing the fascination generated by rare encounters. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Every climate likes exceptions. Warmer when the weather is cold, cooler in the tropics. Men have a bad resistance to thermal shocks, as do works of art. The Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum was influenced by such basic observations. It is rather unusual to find a built archipelago in the sea; it is even more uncommon to see that it is protected by a parasol flooded with a rain of lights.
It is not evident to access a museum by boat, or to find pontoons to reach it on foot from the coast, before being welcomed like a much-awaited visitor willing to see unique collections, to consult books in the tempting bookstores, or to stay longer and enjoy the teas, coffees, and local gastronomy. It is both a calm and complex place which clearly stands out in a series of museums that make a point of maintaining their differences and their authenticities.