Permanent Exhibition
Client:
City of Fécamp
DIMENSION: 2.735 m2
COMPLETION: 2017
Fishery Museum
Fécamp
The city of Fécamp in the French departement, Haute Normandie, was once a fishing metropolis. The ships went as far as Newfoundland and, after months of sailing the icy northern seas, brought back tons of cod to France, where it was processed and turned into a good source of income for the region.The building, “La Morue Mormande”, which was erected in the 1950s in the ...
... centre of the harbour, is an impressive reminder of this branch of industry, which has since ceased to exist, thanks to the emergence of “floating fish factories”.
The historic building is now set to become the new home of the Fishery Museum – designed and installed by Die Werft – after we managed to win the competition in July 2005 for the redesign of the museum in a collaborative bid with Basalt Architecture and ID+ ingénierie. A daring design to extend the building in such a way that it would become a hallmark of the entire city, plus the opening up of various departments from top to bottom – with the ship integrated into the building as a huge feature exhibit – made a strong impression on the jury.
A host of formal and content requirements had to be met in the process. For instance, a series of sightlines between the departments and various areas of the building had to be retained, the fish smoking ovens still housed in the building were to be included in the concept and the view over the sea and neighbouring buildings also had to be preserved.
Various “workshops” on site, in Paris and in Munich finally produced the desired result. This, in many senses of the word, cross-border approach has been maintained right through to the opening of the museum.
