In the heart of the historic Angoulême city centre adjacent to the Romanesque cathedral of St Pierre (X-XII century), the restoration and extension of the Fine Arts Museum located in the old parish house and bishops’ residence. The conceptual response to the brief was to generate a palimpseste, a subtle game of erasure, transformation and addition. Expanded and renovated gallery spaces for the museums’ regional Beaux arts, Archeology, and Africa/Oceania collections are contained within the refurbished existing built volumes of the museum. A limestone and glass-clad extension capped with a zinc roof, built in the interstitial spaces separating museum and cathedral, houses a variety of functions including collection storage and both temporary and permanent exhibition spaces. A new entry from the square along the south façade was created, allowing passage through the restored stone vaults of the existing crypt at the lowest level.
