Renaissance of the Carreau du Temple

The Carreau du Temple will reopen its doors in the spring of 2014, following a project to restore one of the sole surviving vestiges of the great tradition of metal-framed architecture that marked Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. This building, with its characteristically transparent architecture, is an important part of the heritage of the Marais district.

This impressive structure located near Duperré’s École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués and the historic Square du Temple laid out by Jean-Charles Alphand, the urban-planner of Baron Haussmann, had considerable importance for the Paris working classes for one century following its birth. Its market stalls where silk items, carpets, household fabrics and fashion accessories could all be bought, inspired writers who often took the Carreau as the setting for their novels, among them Eugène Sue in Les Mystères de Paris and Paul Féval in Le Fils du diable. In 1904, the building housed the inaugural Paris Fair. Earning a reputation as an essential point of call for buying ‘ordinary clothes for regular budgets and for the well-dressed’, hundreds of vendors had stalls at the site from the post-war period until the 1970s. However, over time business declined, and the Carreau was staked for demolition in 1976 to make way for a parking area, before being saved by the petitioning of five thousand local residents.

A competition was held in 2007 among five architectural firms. The jury awarded the project to restore and adapt the Carreau du Temple to studioMilou architecture, led by its founding architect Jean François Milou. Work on the Carreau began in 2008, but was suspended when investigation of foundations, located in the ancient enclosure of the Knights Templars, led to the discovery of archaeological remains. After a year of excavations, work recommenced in 2010, led by studioMilou’s project architect, Thomas Rouyrre.