The Bourse de commerce

The bourse de commerce

An architectural tour

The opening by the Pinault Collection of a museum of contemporary art in the Bourse de Commerce marks an event of landmark importance. For the transformation of this historic site in the heart of Paris, Frangois Pinault turned, as he had in Venice, to Tadao Ando. Weaving a dialogue between past and present, the Japanese architect has transfigured one of the French capital's most iconic and historic monuments.

Conceived as an architectural tour, this book opens with the Renaissance Medici column and closes with Tadao Ando's concrete cylinder, along the way encompassing the Halle au Ble, built under Louis XV and converted into the Bourse de Commerce for the Exposition Universelle of 1889.

Tracing the history both of the building's architecture and of the uses to which it has been put, the author presents the first history of the Bourse de Commerce, restored at last to its historic position as a monument of key importance in the district of Les Halles.

A historian by training, Guillaume Picon is an author and editor.