The building of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, is an art museum and cultural center. Constructed on the edge of a water garden created especially for the project, the building comprises an assemblage of white blocks (known as “the icebergs”) clad in panels of fiber-reinforced concrete, surrounded by twelve immense glass “sails” supported by wooden beams. The sails give Fondation Louis Vuitton its transparency and sense of movement, while allowing the building to reflect the water, woods and garden and continually change with the light.
As visitors move from gallery to gallery within the building, the large expanses of glass provide picturesque views of the gardens, integrating the landscape into the experience of the museum. Visitors are able to climb exterior stairways underneath the glass sails to reach roof-top gardens and exhibitions.
Guthrie Douglas provided 65 internal tension blinds installed at the building. The TESSTM 140 system was chosen due to its discrete nature coupled with its reliability. The blind were installed at varying angles to the main glass atrium for the building. Slim wire guides and flexible brackets made it easy to design into the glazing surround for near invisibility when retracted.
