Sliding door systems in the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris
Automatic sliding door systems from GEZE enhance the former workplace of the great fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. With a discreet, elegant design, invisible technology and access convenience, they underscore the ambience of this Second Empire-style city palace. The headquarters of the fashion brand was recently converted into a museum. The special structural challenges of the tall, wide entrances to the museum complex were overcome with door technology from GEZE.
The door to haute couture – customised sliding doors
The door to haute couture – customised sliding doors © Christophe Mirabel / GEZE GmbH
The museum is a crowd puller. The automatic glass sliding door systems with powerful Powerdrive drives for the tall, wide entrances to the showrooms proved to be exactly the right choice. Stepping into the foyer through the first sliding door, the visitor comes face to face with the four pop art portraits in which Yves Saint Laurent was immortalized by Andy Warhol, as if being greeted by the “master of the house”. With tinted glass leaves and a drive system hidden from view, the nearby doors blend into the background against the colour intensity of these images. Customised wide-opening automatic sliding doors with heavy glass leaves can be found throughout the museum complex. They guide the visitor to the permanent collection, which includes the legendary tuxedo “Le Smoking”, the leather trench coat and other iconic items, to the areas with temporary exhibition themes and on to the studio.
Fashion museum with a personal touch
Architecture, design and door technology had to come together in harmony, because never before has such a large exhibition been conceived for a fashion designer. In a 450-square-metre museum complex, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of haute couture: a retrospective of the life and work of Yves Saint Laurent and changing themed exhibitions from a collection of 5,000 haute couture models. At the heart of the museum is “Le Studio”, where Saint Laurent spent three decades designing all his collections.
Fashion museum with a personal touch
In a 450-square-metre museum complex, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of haute couture. © Christophe Mirabel / GEZE GmbH
Discreet and powerful
With Powerdrive drive systems, GEZE France has created customised automatic sliding glass doors for large door openings. © Christophe Mirabel / GEZE GmbH
Intensive interaction for the right automatic doors
Preserving the personal atmosphere of the rooms in a modern museum setting was only possible with the help of Pierre Bergé, mastermind of the project and business and life partner of Saint Laurent. The effort that Bergé put into telling the story of the brand and the work of his friend shows just how intense the interaction between the project participants was. These include project manager Réda Issolah from the Paris firm JMR Architectes, interior designer Jacques Grange, set designer Nathalie Crinière and curator Aurélie Samuel. We at GEZE contributed to this collaboration from the very beginning, in particular in working with the architects.
It was important to us to provide all those involved with inspiring suggestions for door solutions, taking into account all the architectural and aesthetic factors and all aspects of the new use of the building. We knew how close many of the exhibits would be to the tall, wide entrances, and that the doors would therefore have to be extremely discreet.
Philippe Eugène, Managing Director of the subsidiary GEZE FranceDoor aesthetics, access convenience and easy handling
Door aesthetics, access convenience and easy handling © Christophe Mirabel / GEZE GmbH
Drawing on our expertise in the most diverse types of buildings with the most diverse uses and based on the flexible options of our product portfolio, we presented all the feasible door solutions from GEZE. A joint decision was made to use automatic sliding doors with grey-tinted glass leaves and door drives embedded in the ceiling. The sliding door systems meet all the requirements for access convenience and easy handling by the staff. We naturally also took control of coordinating the cooperation between all parties involved in the construction. As a result, the sliding door systems could be installed and put into operation quickly and smoothly.
Features and benefits of automatic sliding doors
With Powerdrive drive systems, GEZE France has created customised automatic sliding glass doors for large door openings:
- Harmony with the Second Empire-style interior décor
- Invisible door technology entirely hidden in the ceiling
- Safety sensors with matching ceiling mounting kit
- Tinted glass leaves
- The staging of the exhibits is not affected by the nearby doors
- Transparency without losing intimate room atmosphere, e.g. for private events
- Easy automatic access for all in both directions
- Reliable and easy opening and closing of the heavy sliding leaves even with high access frequency
- Hold-open time adjusts to access frequency
- Increased visitor flow: the leaves are automatically kept open longer
- Highest personal safety standards: DIN 18650 and EN 16005
- Individually adjustable motion parameters: acceleration, hold-open time, opening and closing speed
- Central operation via a programme switch
- Future-proof: possibility of connection to a building system for monitoring or changing the door functions remotely
- Support- right from conceptual planning and throughout the entire life cycle of the door systems
- Support of the construction phase: coordination of all parties involved in the construction to ensure smooth processes
- Customised service and maintenance
- Permanently reliable and safe operation
- Value preservation and extended life span
And finally, the best part: the haute couture
A provocation shapes the fashion of today
He was one of the greatest fashion designers of the 20th century. Yves Saint Laurent’s creations were in step with the emancipation of women and brought fashion and art together.
The museum features many of the haute couture models that promoted what is self-evident in women’s fashion today but was provocative in the 1960s – such as the trench coat and the trouser suit. In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent dressed women in a tuxedo as a statement on the emancipation movement. “Le Smoking” gave new impetus to the men’s suits that Marlene Dietrich had worn since the 1930s – and today the trouser suit is a classic outfit for women in business and politics.
Yves Saint Laurent was one of the first fashion designers to incorporate art into his designs. Haute couture dresses are displayed next to the paintings that inspired them, such as “Musical Instruments on a Table” by Picasso. Then there is the unmistakable “Mondrian dress”, which threw a new spotlight on this artist and has since become legendary.
In the heart of the museum is the studio (“Le Studio”). With bolts of cloth, drawings and sketches, the horn-rimmed glasses on the desk and the white work coat over the chair, everything is kept exactly as it was during the lifetime of the designer, who passed away in 2008.
GEZE products in the Yves Saint Laurent Museum
- Automatic linear sliding door system for large and heavy door leaves of up to 200 kg leaf weight and opening widths of up to 3000 mm
- Combined detector for control and protection of automatic sliding doors with four adjustable light curtain configurations
- Software for integrating the door systems in the building management system, ensuring that the parameters of the automatic sliding door systems can be conveniently set and reliably maintained thanks to automatic fault reports and diagnostic functions
