Studio Adrien Gardère - Museography, scenography, exhibition design and design agency - Museographer, scenographer, exhibition designer

Philosophy

Since its foundation in 2000, Studio Adrien Gardère’s holistic and comprehensive approach has met with international success in projects ranging from permanent museum and temporary exhibition design to cultural programming and product and interior design.

Throughout the years, the Studio has built long-standing relationships with some of the most prestigious cultural institutions and architectural firms around the world, developing projects adapted to local demand and international strategies.

Working hand in hand with world-class institutions, curators, and architects in China, India, Japan, Mali, Qatar, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malta, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia, as well as France, the UK and the US, has fine-tuned the Studio’s capacity to adapt to different cultures and professional approaches and to establish productive dialogues with all the stakeholders involved in each project.

Born from a philosophy of inclusivity and accessibility, the Studio thrives on working with local cultures and communities, establishing meaningful conversations with diverse audiences and partners. Making the best of the scientific and educative objectives, of the artefacts’ collection, of the cultural and idiosyncratic environment, and of the architectural context, the Studio’s goal is to always achieve inviting and empowering bespoke design in which intuition, emotion, and innovation can convey curatorial expertise to all audiences and meet clients’ aspirations.

The Studio always carefully manages the number of projects it undertakes in order to collaborate as closely as possible with all its clients and partners, and to ensure outstanding and on-time delivery thanks to its team's full focus and commitment.

Team

Adrien Gardère
Founder
Born in France in 1972, Adrien Gardère studied French Literature in Hypokhâgne before training as a furniture designer at the École Supérieure d’Arts Appliqués Boulle and the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs.

His designs have been produced and distributed by major furniture and lighting brands including Artemide, Ligne Roset, Cinna, Perimeter Editions and Saazs, and entered the permanent collection of public design institutions such as the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (France), the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), the Design Centro do Bélem (Lisbon).

Building on his success in the field of product design, Adrien Gardère founded his Studio in 2000 and expanded to museography and exhibition design.

Adrien Gardère’s Studio quickly established enduring relationships both with major international institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Academy Museum of Motion Picture in Los Angeles, and with some of the world’s leading architects such as Foster+Partners; SANAA, David Chipperfield and Fumihiko Maki.

His comprehensive and integrated approach has met with international success. Some of his most acclaimed work to date includes the museography of the Musée du Louvre-Lens (France, 2012) the renovation of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, (Egypt, 2010), the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (Canada, 2014), the recently completed the French-American Museum in Blérancourt (France, 2017), and the Canadian and Indigenous Art Galleries of the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2017).

Current projects are the Royal Academy of Arts in London with architects David Chipperfield (opening 2018), the Roman Antiquities Museum in Narbonne, France with architects Foster and Partners (opening 2019), the French National Museum of the Middle Ages, Musée de Cluny, Paris (opening 2020), or the Encore Park Museum Of Street Culture in Dallas, TX (opening 2019).

Looking forward, Adrien Gardère wants to build on these relationships, develop new partnerships and ways of working creatively, and sees every project as an opportunity to create a unique and legitimate design: a new way of conceiving museography, appropriate to a new generation, in which design and content meet the visitors’ expectations and provide a visual, educative and uplifting experience.
Loukia Bana
Loukia Bana joined Studio Adrien Gardère in 2023 as the Head of the Paris Office, where she oversees all of the Studio’s management and operations. She is responsible for coordinating competition submissions, both in France and internationally, managing the editorial content for the book and website, as well as the Studio’s general administration.

Before joining the team, Loukia gained extensive experience working with agencies specializing in branding and design, bringing valuable project management expertise. She has also held various positions in communications and publishing. Loukia holds a master’s degree in English literature.
Francesca Galdangelo
Architect DPLG
Francesca Galdangelo graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and obtained a Master's degree in " Museography, Architecture & Strategic Management for Archaeological Resources " from the Accademia Adrianea Onlus, followed by the obtainment of the " Maîtrise d’Oeuvre en son Nom Propre " (HMONP) at the École Nationale Supérieure de Paris la Villette in 2016.

Francesca joined the Studio Adrien Gardère in Paris in 2012 and she immediately started working on the City Palace in Jaipur and following the design of two exhibitions at the the Pierre Arnaud Foundation in Switzerland. Since 2014, she has been project manager for the renovation of the museography of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, in collaboration with David Chipperfield Architects, the renovation of the Franco-American Museum of Blérancourt Castle and the complete renovation of the " Galeries de la Mode " of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, opened in February 2020, and the Swedish Pavilion for the World's Fair 2020 in Dubaï.

Francesca is currently the project manager of the Museum of Rolin in Autun.She develops ambitious museographic projects by analyzing in depth the architectural context and its spatial and heritage challenges.
Carole Pfendler
Senior Designer
After graduating of ENSAAMA Olivier de Serre in Paris, Carole Pfendler joined Studio Adrien Gardère in 2011.

Carole worked as a project manager on the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as well as on the Franco-American Museum of the Blérancourt Castle. She was in charge of the museographic and exhibition project of Photo Elysée in Lausanne and of the redesign and extension of the Museum of Tahiti and her Islands, which has opened in Mars 2023. Carole has been in charge of the scenography of several exhibitions, whether in France, the United States or China. Most notably, she designed the major retrospective " Charlie Chaplin : a vision " at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai in 2018, showcasing the work of the actor and director through more than 350 vintage photographs and documents.

Carole has a deep understanding of different forms of mediation and how visitors interact with content. She excels in the areas of conceptual design and research, and has experience overseeing graphic design, signage and multimedia installations.
Marc Sarrazin
Senior Designer
After obtaining his diploma in Arts and Crafts " Wood carving special " at the École Boulle in Paris, Marc Sarrazin graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris. After two years of working as a product designer, Marc joined Studio Adrien Gardère in 2012.

Since then, Marc has contributed to several exhibition projects, such as the Alberto Giacometti retrospective at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai in 2016, deploying the different periods of Giacometti’s work within 4.500 m2 of exhibition spaces. He also successfully worked on several permanent projects : from the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, which opened in 2014, to the Museum of Cluny, the national museum dedicated to the Middle Ages opened in 2021.

Marc is very attentive to detail and material finishes. He perfectly combines technique and aesthetics to conceive and design an exhibition and its furnishings and excels in graphic design. He has proven his ability to collaborate with various actors on large-scale projects.
Nicolas Girard
After a BTS in Product Design, Nicolas Girard continued his studies in Design at the École supérieure d’art et design de Saint-Etienne, and obtained the Diplôme National Supérieur d’Expression Plastique in 2015. He works as a freelancer for various professionals in the fields of product design, interior architecture and scenography, and successfully participates in furniture design competitions.

Nicolas joins the Studio in 2019. He is in charge of the Narbo Via Museum, one of the Studio’s longest projects, scheduled to open in summer 2021. He also worked on the scenography of the inaugural exhibition of the Narbo Via Museum, scheduled to open in 2021 and the exhibition " Kaiwu, art and design in China ", to be held in spring 2021 at the Hospice Comtesse Museum in Lille. He has also participated in museum competitions.

His training and experience in product design, as well as his strong taste for drawing and his attachment to the object, allow Nicolas to work on his projects with a particular rigor and sense of detail. He seeks above all to propose solutions that make sense in relation to the context.
Ji Hyun Kim
Ji Hyun Kim graduated in 2015 from Yonsei University, Seoul with a Bachelor’s degree in architecture. She pursued her architecture studies during her Master’s at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris la Villette, followed by the obtainment of the " Maîtrise d’Oeuvre en son Nom Propre " (HMONP) at the École Nationale Supérieure de Paris la Villette in 2021.

Ji Hyun joined the Studio in 2018 and worked on several museography competitions (Musée maritime de Saint-Malo, Musée du Léman de Nyon, …). She took part in a unique installation displaying the contemporary Koinoboris created by Reiko Sudo in 2018 at the Oita Art Museum in Japan.

Ji Hyun also worked on the project of the Swedish Pavilion at the World's Fair 2020 in Dubaï and was project manager of the exhibition " Végetal, l'École de la Beauté " in 2022 at the Beaux-Arts of Paris.

Ji Hyun is particularly interested in the way scenography can serve and enhance the artefacts as well as the architecture.
Andréa Racca
Andréa joined the Studio in 2020, alongside writing her thesis on visitor experience in museums and obtaining her master’s degree in textile design from Ensci - Les Ateliers in 2022. She also obtained a Technical Degree in environment, fashion and textile design.

At the Studio, Andréa works on major projects, such as the anniversary exhibition design for Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960 at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., a retrospective of revolutionary art seamlessly integrated into the museum’s circular architecture. She also contributes to the development of Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the Studio team is designing modular and adaptable systems for displaying photography. Additionally, she worked on the scenography for the Salon Révélations, showcasing the work of hundreds of artisans from France and abroad, at the Grand Palais Éphémère.

Andréa has a perfect command of 3D software and knows how to use its capabilities to produce meaningful renderings. Curious and committed, she uses her skills to propose dynamic and innovative solutions for all the studio's projects.
Romane Perelle
Romane Perelle graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École Duperré de Paris in space design. She joins the Studio in 2021.

Specialized in museography and exhibition scenography through her previous experiences, Romane is now working on a very large-scale exhibition in the Middle East. She puts into practice her precision of proportions and points of view, combined with her understanding of artistic and historical issues and themes.

Recently, she allowed the Studio to win the competition for the rehabilitation of the Château de l'Hermine - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Vannes - by participating in the project with the architects Nieto Sojebano. This new museum has the ambition to link the two identities of the place (the castle, historical reference, and the new architectural volume) translating by its transversality the dialogue between the disciplines and its programming gathering Fine Arts, graphic arts and contemporary arts.

Romane has the capacity to adapt and to be rigorous in phase with the ambitions of the Studio. Her influences as a designer are sober, playful and enlightened.
Guillaume Humbert
Guillaume Humbert joined the Studio in 2021, after completing his studies in Industrial Creation at l’École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI-Les Ateliers). Guillaume is specialized in museography; society contexts and object journeys.

At the Studio, Guillaume participates in the projects of several temporary exhibitions. For the Fondation Cartier, he designed the scenography for the Sally Gabori retrospective. In order to bring the visitor into the pictorial work, very colorful of the artist, he proposes a simple and continuous scenography, attentive to the work of the painter and allowing a generous hanging.

Guillaume also participates in the elaboration of a large-scale exhibition in the Middle East, whose body of work, both historical and contemporary, requires precision and humility.
Janet M. Christensen
New Business Development
Janet Mifflin Christensen joined Studio Adrien Gardère in 2015 after a long tenure with The Blackstone Group in New York City, where she worked beside co-founder, Stephen A. Schwarzman, for over 17 years, assisting him and the firm in becoming a major global financial services entity with multiple businesses, including raising the largest private equity fund ever raised. Prior to Blackstone, Janet worked at NW Ayer, Inc. in Los Angeles, America’s first advertising agency founded in Philadelphia, overseeing the Chairman’s office and curating the NW Ayer Los Angeles gallery space after a stint at Art Center College of Design, the top private art college in California, overseeing special projects and guiding students through to graduation as Assistant Registrar.

Janet was born in Sonoma County, California and graduated with a BA degree from Brigham Young University in Political Science after spending six months studying at BYU’s London campus, as well as BYU-Hawaii, studying Asian Political Thought. She is a Life Benefactor of the Royal National Theatre in London and serves as American Ambassador to the Bristol Old Vic, the UK’s oldest, surviving 18th-century theatre (1766), whose Artistic Director, Tom Morris, created the Olivier and Tony Award-winning " War Horse ".

Janet is based in New York City ; Sundance - Utah, the founding home of the Sundance Film Festival and Paris.