As if the Art Nouveau Métro entrances designed by Hector Guimard around what will forever to my generation be ‘the turn of the century’—1900—weren’t gorgeous enough, there’s always an urge to re-imagine.
The one above, designed by Jean-Michel Othoniel, as it happens, was designed at the turn of the next century—2000—to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Métro, and of the station it serves, Palais Royale/Musée du Louvre on Place Colette.
It even has a name of its own: “Kiosque des noctambules,” or Kiosk of the night-walkers. The colored glass beads on the aluminum structure are arranged in two cupolas, one largely red, the other featuring blue beads. The cupolas are meant to represent the day and the night. Yes.
