The competition finalists

The international architecture competition to design the future Musée du Louvre-Lens, launched in early 2005 by the Nord-Pas de Calais region, contractor for the project, received over 120 entries from France, Europe, America, and Asia, including some of the most honored names in the profession.

The first jury met on April 29, 2005, to select six entries. The chosen teams were the French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, Rudy Ricciotti, the young architect from Lille Jérôme de Alzua, the Anglo-Iraqi Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl from New York, and the Sanaa agency from Japan (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa).

Following a thorough analysis of the selected projects, the second jury met on September 13, 2005 to shortlist three designs, by Rudy Ricciotti, Sanaa, and Zaha Hadid.

And the winner is... Sanaa

The regional council's permanent commission met on September 26, 2005 to select the winner. The commission accepted president Daniel Percheron's nomination and declared the winning design to be that of the Sanaa agency (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa).

The six finalists

Jérôme de Alzua:
"The museum accompanies the park and shelters beneath a vast roof whose folds rise progressively above the grounds".

Zaha Hadid:
"It is a tectonic design that springs from the interface of powerful urban elements - the corridor linking the Bollaert stadium and the garden walk that stretches from the city to the park".

Steven Holl:
"Wrapped in weathering steel, whose reddish-brown hue is reminiscent of the local brick architecture, the body of the gallery ‘floats' over a level of transparent glass [...]".

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal:
"The building's silhouette blends without authority or hierarchy with the emerging architecture of the Lens cityscape".

Rudy Ricciotti:
"The architectural project interprets the existing embankment, revealing it [...] by digging galleries into it [...]. This negative, infrastructural landscape is echoed by the ideal hanging garden - Eden on the roof of the museum".

Sanaa:
"The context arouses curiosity, inviting the visitor to invest the movement and explore the building, which is close to nature and which brings out the best in the landscape rather than occupying it".