The National Picasso Museum-Paris has selected five teams for the “offer” phase of the Picasso 2030 architecture and landscape competition. Meeting on September 7, the jury must now decide between highly international applications. The winner will be chosen in January 2027, before work begins in 2028 and an opening is planned for the end of 2030.
The first team brings together the French agency Antoine Dufour Architectes, specializing in protected heritage, and Wagon Landscaping. The agency operates in particular at the Palais du Rhin in Strasbourg and on the site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof camp. The Franco-Lebanese Lina Ghotmeh competes with the Frenchman Pierre-Antoine Gatier, chief architect of historical monuments, and the landscaper Florence Mercier. Lina Ghotmeh designed the Serpentine pavilion in London in 2023 and the Hermès workshops in Louviers; Pierre-Antoine Gatier participated, with Tadao Ando and NeM, in the transformation of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris.
Third team: the French from NeM / Niney and Marca, themselves associated with the Bourse de Commerce, make common cause with RCR Arquitectes, the Catalan agency founded by Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta, 2017 Pritzker prize and author of the Soulages museum in Rodez, as well as with the French landscaper Jacqueline Osty. The British firm Stanton Williams, which led the renovation-extension of the Nantes Museum of Arts and reconverted the Granary Building at King’s Cross for Central Saint Martins, is associated with Atelier PNG, the French agency winning the 2021 Silver Équerre, and the landscaper Vogt. Finally, the Italian Francesca Torzo, noted for the extension of the Z33 art center in Hasselt, is competing with Dubrigny Architectes and the British landscaper Sarah Price.
The competition covers the entire Picasso 2030 program: a new wing of around 800 m² intended for temporary exhibitions, the redevelopment of around 2,000 m² on the ground floor and basement of the Hôtel Salé, a logistics and conservation center and the meeting of the museum garden with the Léonor-Fini square. The future garden of nearly 2,400 m² will accommodate around ten sculptures by Picasso.
The overall budget, announced at 50 million euros in 2025, has now been increased to 55 million. The museum presents it as entirely self-funded. The assembly is based in particular on eight exceptional posthumous bronze prints authorized by the Picasso family: four will join the Parisian garden; four others were acquired for 40 million euros by the DQ Art Foundation (a Dutch foundation linked to the Dutch collector and businessman Rolly van Rappard), and are intended, by donation, for the Rijksmuseum. The remaining 15 million must be raised from French and international patrons, with a call for donations planned for 2027.
The previous major construction site of the Hôtel Salé provides a point of comparison. The Bodin & Associés agency, managed by Jean-François Bodin, was chosen in 2009 for the renovation, restructuring and extension of the technical wing; the classified parts were under the responsibility of Stéphane Thouin, chief architect of historic monuments. The museum, closed in August 2009, saw work begin in October 2011 before reopening on October 25, 2014. The operation cost 53.6 million euros: 19.2 million provided by the State, 32.4 million generated by the international traveling of the collections and 2 million in sponsorship from Eiffage.
