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ArchitectureÎle Seguin · Opening October 2026

Large, RCR Arquitectes' new art centre on Paris's Île Seguin, opens

A copper-scaled art centre on the site of the first Renault factory opens with a show about the car.

Large, RCR Arquitectes' new art centre on Paris's Île Seguin, opens
Photo: Wallpaper*

For decades the Île Seguin, an island just west of Paris, held the first Renault factory. After it closed in 1992, the site sat empty through a run of abandoned schemes, one by Tadao Ando and one by Jean Nouvel. Shigeru Ban's La Seine Musicale was the rare success. Now Emerige's Laurent Dumas is building a 'Pointe des Arts' at the other tip: an IMAX cinema, a hotel and Large, a 5,000 sq m contemporary art centre designed by Pritzker winners RCR Arquitectes.

The cinema wears rust-coloured corten steel. The museum is covered in copper-pink anodised aluminium scales, some microperforated so the inside reads like a filtered mashrabiya screen. Visitors pass through a bright atrium with amphitheatre steps, then ride a long escalator to a pillar-free fourth-floor gallery, 14m high in places, which opens onto a wraparound terrace and a café by Constance Guisset.

The opening show, Imaginary Engine, is curated by the High Line's Cecilia Alemani. It brings together 120 works about the automobile, nearly half from Renault's collection, including Dubuffet, Vasarely, Niki de Saint Phalle and early Doisneau photographs, plus 17 new commissions.

It runs from 17 October 2026 to 7 March 2027 and is free for anyone 26 or under. Arrive by RCR's new pedestrian bridge.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 13 October 2026. Read the original