1.2 The Palais de Rumine — 1906 Located on the eastern side of the Place de la Riponne at the base of the hill where the city’s Cathedral (1275) and the former Academie de Lausanne (1587) the forerunner of today’s UNIL are located, the Palais de Rumine was built between 1891 and 1906 as planned by the architect Gaspard André.
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A Brief History of the Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne
Located on the eastern side of the Place de la Riponne at the base of the hill where the city’s Cathedral (1275) and the former Academie de Lausanne (1587) the forerunner of today’s UNIL are located, the Palais de Rumine was built between 1891 and 1906 as planned by the architect Gaspard André. The building was designed to house the city’s university, the library of the Canton, and several art and science museums. The Florentine Renaissance style of the building is without any clear relation to local tradition but was thought appropriate in terms of references to a time of cultural renewal and humanism. Article 22 of the Swiss Constitution of 1848 called for the creation of a polytechnic institute and a Federal university. The first of these institutions was established in Zürich in 1854 (ETH Zurich), and although the second was never created, the idea of housing a Federal university stirred rival ambitions in cities such as Geneva and Lausanne. It was in this atmosphere that Lausanne received an unexpected donation of 1.5 million francs from Gabriel de Rumine, the scion of a Russian family, born in Lausanne in 1841. The donation was to be invested and spent fifteen years after Rumine’s untimely death in 1871. An agreement between the Canton and the city of Lausanne led to the selection of the site and an architectural competition was launched in September 1889. The decidedly heterogenous scheme called not only for a museum of art, and new spaces for the Library and future University, but also collections of zoology, botany, geology, and paleontology as well as laboratories, workshops and offices. Thirty-six projects were submitted and in an atmosphere of complex disagreement, the second-place project of Gaspard André was chosen in 1890. Born in 1840 in Lyon of a Swiss father, he had already designed the Théâtre des Célestins in his native city. The essentially rectangular complex, with the long axis on a north-south orientation was the object of disputes from the outset. Formerly the site of a Dominican convent and blocked on the east by the hill of the old city, the location received little sunlight, and offered few possibilities for future enlargement, in part because of the presence on the Place de la Riponne of the Grenette, a grain market. Because of this and political issues, ten years went by between the first studies for the building and the beginning of construction. Matters were further complicated by the death of the architect in 1896. A team of local architects was named to carry out the plans. Although the University, the Library and the Museum were able to move into the building in 1904, the official inauguration occurred only on November 3, 1906. As it had been earlier in the process, the rather sumptuous Italianate design was criticized locally because it did not adhere to the relative Calvinist austerity that was prevalent in the region.
© 2018 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
1.2 The Palais de Rumine — 1906 Located on the eastern side of the Place de la Riponne at the base of the hill where the city’s Cathedral (1275) and the former Academie de Lausanne (1587) the forerunner of today’s UNIL are located, the Palais de Rumine was built between 1891 and 1906 as planned by the architect Gaspard André.
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A Brief History of the Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne
Located on the eastern side of the Place de la Riponne at the base of the hill where the city’s Cathedral (1275) and the former Academie de Lausanne (1587) the forerunner of today’s UNIL are located, the Palais de Rumine was built between 1891 and 1906 as planned by the architect Gaspard André. The building was designed to house the city’s university, the library of the Canton, and several art and science museums. The Florentine Renaissance style of the building is without any clear relation to local tradition but was thought appropriate in terms of references to a time of cultural renewal and humanism. Article 22 of the Swiss Constitution of 1848 called for the creation of a polytechnic institute and a Federal university. The first of these institutions was established in Zürich in 1854 (ETH Zurich), and although the second was never created, the idea of housing a Federal university stirred rival ambitions in cities such as Geneva and Lausanne. It was in this atmosphere that Lausanne received an unexpected donation of 1.5 million francs from Gabriel de Rumine, the scion of a Russian family, born in Lausanne in 1841. The donation was to be invested and spent fifteen years after Rumine’s untimely death in 1871. An agreement between the Canton and the city of Lausanne led to the selection of the site and an architectural competition was launched in September 1889. The decidedly heterogenous scheme called not only for a museum of art, and new spaces for the Library and future University, but also collections of zoology, botany, geology, and paleontology as well as laboratories, workshops and offices. Thirty-six projects were submitted and in an atmosphere of complex disagreement, the second-place project of Gaspard André was chosen in 1890. Born in 1840 in Lyon of a Swiss father, he had already designed the Théâtre des Célestins in his native city. The essentially rectangular complex, with the long axis on a north-south orientation was the object of disputes from the outset. Formerly the site of a Dominican convent and blocked on the east by the hill of the old city, the location received little sunlight, and offered few possibilities for future enlargement, in part because of the presence on the Place de la Riponne of the Grenette, a grain market. Because of this and political issues, ten years went by between the first studies for the building and the beginning of construction. Matters were further complicated by the death of the architect in 1896. A team of local architects was named to carry out the plans. Although the University, the Library and the Museum were able to move into the building in 1904, the official inauguration occurred only on November 3, 1906. As it had been earlier in the process, the rather sumptuous Italianate design was criticized locally because it did not adhere to the relative Calvinist austerity that was prevalent in the region. © 2018 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
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La paresse
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Félix Vallotton 1896
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Croquis sans titre Théophile Alexandre Steinlen 1931
La paresse Félix Vallotton 1896
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Croquis sans titre Théophile Alexandre Steinlen 1931
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Architecture & Art
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Architecture & Art
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2.2.3 New Competition, New Architects The competition organized for the design of the new museum and for ideas concerning the broader site was announced on July 20, 2010. The jury was presided by Olivier Steimer, President of the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, with the architect David Chipperfield as vice president. Other jury members were Daniel Brélaz (Syndic or Mayor of Lausanne), Bernard Fibicher (Director of the Museum), Pierre Keller (Director of the ECAL school of art and design) and the architects Patrick Devanthéry, Francisco Aires Mateus and Charles Pictet, amongst others. The total site area under consideration was 21,000 square meters directly next to railway tracks on the southern side and an embankment with apartment buildings to the north. Logically one announced objective of the competition beyond the actual architecture was to seek a method to open this relatively circumscribed area to the rest of the city. In terms of visitors, the competition documents stressed that the new institution should be open to the local population, to tourists and to school groups. The total public floor area of the Museum was fixed at 4,920 square meters with a further 3,170 square meters for the reserves, offices and other administrative spaces. The concomitant ideas competition was focused on the future development of the entire site as a “cultural pole” for the city and the Canton, to include another significant structure housing the mudac and Musée de l’Elysée, respectively dedicated to design and to photography. The architects involved in the competition were further invited to suggest ways to develop the activities of the site even beyond the planned buildings, with a further 1,000 square meters explicitly set aside for that purpose.
© 2018 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
Towards a New Cultural Hub
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Towards a New Cultural Hub
2.2.3 New Competition, New Architects The competition organized for the design of the new museum and for ideas concerning the broader site was announced on July 20, 2010. The jury was presided by Olivier Steimer, President of the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, with the architect David Chipperfield as vice president. Other jury members were Daniel Brélaz (Syndic or Mayor of Lausanne), Bernard Fibicher (Director of the Museum), Pierre Keller (Director of the ECAL school of art and design) and the architects Patrick Devanthéry, Francisco Aires Mateus and Charles Pictet, amongst others. The total site area under consideration was 21,000 square meters directly next to railway tracks on the southern side and an embankment with apartment buildings to the north. Logically one announced objective of the competition beyond the actual architecture was to seek a method to open this relatively circumscribed area to the rest of the city. In terms of visitors, the competition documents stressed that the new institution should be open to the local population, to tourists and to school groups. The total public floor area of the Museum was fixed at 4,920 square meters with a further 3,170 square meters for the reserves, offices and other administrative spaces. The concomitant ideas competition was focused on the future development of the entire site as a “cultural pole” for the city and the Canton, to include another significant structure housing the mudac and Musée de l’Elysée, respectively dedicated to design and to photography. The architects involved in the competition were further invited to suggest ways to develop the activities of the site even beyond the planned buildings, with a further 1,000 square meters explicitly set aside for that purpose.
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Towar owards ds a New Cultural Hub
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Towar owards ds a New Cultural Hub
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Femme couchée, 1897 François Valotton Linogravure
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Design and Photography - mudac/Elysée
Femme couchée, 1897
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Design and Photography - mudac/Elysée
François Valotton Linogravure
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Towards a New Cultural Hub
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Towards a New Cultural Hub
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Towards a New Cltural Hub
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Towards a New Cltural Hub
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