Studio Adrien Gardère

Moreau Kusunoki Architectes, in partnership with the Studio Adrien Gardère, won in 2013 the competition for the creation in Cayenne of the Center of Cultures and Memoirs of Guyana (MCMG).

As a place of preservation, demonstration and cultural expertise, the MCMG will become a place for an identity and public life. The project is the rehabilitation of the old Jean-Martial hospital – which will soon be included in the list of historic monuments – along with the construction of new buildings. The future MCMG will be located in the rear of the Place of the Palmistes, an important public space of the city.

The scenography preserves the perception and the architectural volume of the Jean-Martial hospital, taking advantage of its existing doors and passageways. The museum’s furniture distributes the axes of circulation, draws various routes and invites the visitor to deambulation and wander, far from a strict European rationality that entails hierarchies. The perspectives arranged between inside and outside weave links between the themes of the museum and the views on the city and on the ocean.