THE FRENCH NATIONAL LIBRARY

Beyond history, the book highlights and illustrates the many experiments carried out by Dominique Perrault. The first example of “Groundscape” architecture—an architecture of the underground envisaged as a field of exploration capable of redefining the nature of our cities—the reader discovers a unique collection of documents: sketches, technical drawings, photos, photomontages, digital or hand-drawn perspectives, study and competition models, and material samples. From architectural objects to territory, from gardens to furniture, the book recounts every detail from conception to completion.

Publishing a monograph on the BnF project, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the opening of the research library to the public, provides an opportunity to present a critical edition retracing the adventure of ideas, concepts, and methods imagined by Dominique Perrault to design a 21st-century library. The book offers a different perspective on the building: a place, a public space for work and meditation in the wake of the digital revolution, the story of a library in the age of new media.