Landscape

The Bougon Burial Mounds Museum is an archaeological site museum located about one kilometre from the Neolithic burial site on the site of a former mediaeval monastery farm. Situated at a distance from the burial site, it acts as the entrance to the archaeological park that serves to showcase the burial site.

Designed in the form of a large peristyle placed in the landscape, the project is an integral part of the mediaeval site, conserving intact the remains of a monastic hall and Cistercian chapel. The museum is also situated three kilometres from the nearest villages (Bougon, Pamproux, la Mothe Saint-Héraye and Salles).

Following the opening of the museum to the public, Jean François Milou was asked by the Conseil général des Deux- Sèvres to produce a concerted rehabilitation strategy for the small towns and villages neighbouring the site. This plan, aiming to rehabilitate the architecture of the villages, also included the construction of a system of planted walks connecting the villages to the new museum.

Materials and architecture

The Bougon Burial Mounds Museum was constructed using lightweight steel and wood. Contemporary architectural styling was employed, both sober and simple, which involved no particular stylistic sophistication.

Site archaelogical museum

Research displays With the construction of the Bougon Burial Mounds Museum, opened to the public in 1993, the practice began to work closely on archaeological and scientific museums. The form of a portico that would serve both as an exhibition space and as a thoroughfare linking interior with exterior was imposed by the museum’s design.

Behind the design lay the idea of a museum that should open onto a landscaped area, allowing visitors to think about man and his place in the environment by walking meditatively through the museum while learning about present-day research.

Archaelogical park

The Bougon Burial Mounds Museum is located around 800 metres from the burial site.This distance protects the site from any visual interference threatening its integrity, and it also allows visitors to follow an itinerary introducing them to the burial site itself. Between 1993 and 2003, interpretation materials were set up the length of the 800 metres separating the museum from the burial site.

These allowed an entire educational programme to be introduced at the site for visitors at different times, undertaken under the direction of the new museum curator Elaine Lacroix. Studio Milou Architecture has carried out the coordination of all the work at the museum and at the burial site since 1993, and it has managed many of these components (cafeteria, planting of the site, educational activities, the excavation module, new entry area, etc.).