Studio Adrien Gardère

Narbo Via, the regional museum of ancient Narbonne, was the subject of an international competition won by the architects Foster+Partners with the Studio Adrien Gardère. The building, located at the entrance to the city, along the Robine Canal, houses the collection of the entire "Roman Narbonne".

The central element of the museum, imagined by the Studio, is a monumental wall (76m. long, 10m. high) made up of the famous ancient bas-reliefs of Narbonne, and serving as a permeable border between the professional and public spaces. This lapidary wall is based on the most modern techniques of automatic industrial shelving and stacker cranes, capable of moving and displaying in an evolving manner the entire collection of nearly 760 Roman lapidary elements.
The wall is permanently reconfigured by the movement of the lapidary items and reflects the image of the city of Narbonne, which is based on successive reconstructions. Multimedia devices constitute a didactic extension allowing the visitor to apprehend this historical, cultural and urban evolution.

The scenography of the permanent exhibitions is based on the classic plan of a Roman villa, with a central atrium serving all the exhibition spaces, and whose crossing is similar to the visit of a villa discovered and excavated in the Narbonne region.