The museum is housed in a private mansion, the Hôtel de Lalande, built in Bordeaux between 1775 and 1779 for the parliamentary adviser Pierre de Raymond de Lalande. This house will change status over time.
In 1880, it was bought by the City, which installed the police services there. Then the City established a first Museum of Ancient Art, in 1924, which was transformed into a Museum of Decorative Arts in 1955. In 1984, the museum was refurbished to evoke a rich aristocratic residence, emblematic of the Age of Enlightenment in Bordeaux. In 2013, on the initiative of Constance Rubini, director of the museum, the institution was renamed the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, thus signifying the desire to make it a major place for the dissemination of the culture of design.
The former prison, the museum’s new exhibition space since 2017
Like many of these fine mansions, the Hôtel de Lalande was built between courtyard and garden. In 1880, the municipality of Bordeaux bought this mansion, installed the municipal police there and razed the garden to build a prison there.
Women, men, children, sailors, merchants, public women are imprisoned there awaiting a judgment by the Petit Parquet, then installed in the former salons of the private mansion, alongside the Police and Morals services. . Despite the opening of a first museum in 1924, the prison, at the back of the plot, remained in operation until the 1960s.
Reorganized in reserves in 1983, the building evolves in 2016 in order to welcome the new spaces of temporary exhibitions of the museum. This building is a beautiful functional architecture. The two symmetrical promenade courtyards were covered in the 1980s and are surrounded by the former prisoner cells. Many graffiti on the walls still evoke this past. Oh colors!
Design through the prism of color is the first exhibition presented in this atypical space. It is the most attended exhibition in the history of the museum and also the most visited in Bordeaux in 2017 (43,239 visitors).
This new space, which doubles the exhibition surface, gives a new dynamic and good visibility to the institution. Construction is the second exhibition presented in the former prison.
The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design has since developed a substantial program bringing together decorative arts and design. The exhibitions that have taken place in recent years have considerably increased and rejuvenated the attendance of the museum.
The cultural development of the museum has encouraged the creation of a project to extend, modernize and redevelop the two buildings: the former prison (new exhibition space since 2016) and the Hôtel de Lalande, classified as historical monuments. The winners of the architectural competition launched in June 2018 are two young architects, Aymeric Antoine and Pierre Dufour (Antoine Dufour architectes agency), who have already won the “Albums of young architects and landscapers” and the prize for the first work of the architectural competition of the Silver Square. The start of work on this architectural project is scheduled for the end of 2022. It benefits from the patronage of Elisabeth Wilmers, owner of Château Haut-Bailly.
Museum of Decorative Arts and Design
39 rue Bouffard – 33000 Bordeaux
+33 (0)5 56 10 14 00 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You must enable JavaScript to view it. / www.madd-bordeaux.fr
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