Institut du canal de Bourgogne

These two projects come from a mission which has been granted to Shigeru Ban in the context of « nouveaux commanditaires » (new sponsors), the goal of which is the creation of art works (of all types, not only architectural) that establish a dialog with their context. The “Centre d?interprétation du Canal de Bourgogne” includes a series of artists’ projects and architectural works by different architects. The “Institut du Canal? and the ?Halle du Toueur” are the first two projects to be completed in Pouilly en Auxois.

The first project is a small museum designed as a glass box with a flat roof and set at the angle of the canal and a pond. The unique character of this project resides in its structure, which is composed of a series of standard galvanized angles normally used for the building of storage shelves. In this case they are used as load bearing elements for the building as well as supports for the museum exhibits. The “Halle du Toueur” is a vaulted hangar built with cardboard tubes linked together with aluminum sleeves, covered by a transparent finely corrugated polycarbonate skin. The structure protects an old tugboat which was used to tow the boats along the canal. It is open at each end, allowing visitors to access the structure from either direction.