"It was not that we just wanted to design an animal," Sahlmann says. "It was more that this organic shape better fit to the constraints of the site. We created useful space for the foundation while giving air and light to the neighbors living around. We couldn’t do this with a more rectangular-shaped building."

The glass top of the shell is supported by curved wooden beams and covered in semi-transparent aluminum panels, with a spiral staircase connecting the floors. Inside are the foundation’s offices, a 70-person screening room, and extensive archives — more than 10,000 films, most of which are silent. Most important, the building’s curvaceous design freed up more space in the courtyard, allowing room for a new garden and letting more natural light filter down.

When viewed from above, the building seems as if it would stick out against the Haussmann-era buildings in Paris' 13th arrondissement — a bulbous, contemporary growth along the city’s historic skyline. City authorities have gone to great lengths to preserve Paris' landscape, implementing strict building restrictions and famously limiting the heights of new constructions to only a few stories. But some architects have pushed for a relaxation of these regulations, with architect Jean Nouvel saying in 2008 that it’s time "to stop thinking of Paris as a museum city."

Architects have pushed for a relaxation of strict building regulations

The Renzo Piano Building Workshop has plenty of experience melding the historic with the modern, having created the urbanist Centre Georges Pompidou art museum in central Paris, and built the Morgan Library in New York under similarly tight urban constraints. The key, Sahlmann says, is "keeping a layer of the history" without overwhelming it.

"The facade is a layer of the 19th century, and we’re adding a piece that's quite in-scale and respectful of what is existing," he explains, noting that the new structure is barely visible at street level.

"The building is not on the street crying, 'Here I am!' It's stepping away and sitting there, waiting for somebody to discover it."

The Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé is scheduled to open on September 10th. All images copyright and published with the permission of Michel Denancé