BNF celebrates its 30th anniversary!

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the François Mitterrand site, inaugurated on March 30th 1995.

In 1989, Dominique Perrault won an international design competition. Located on a 7-hectare industrial wasteland, the project is above all a 400-metre-long public esplanade, eight metres above the Seine. Four towers are placed on this plinth around a void, the garden, conceived as a cloister, sheltered from the nuisances of the city and a refuge for biodiversity. A founding act in Dominique Perrault's approach, this project is the first example of what he would later call “groundscape” architecture.

Designed in collaboration with Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, the interiors and furniture are an extension of the architecture on a reader's scale. The adventure of the Bibliothèque also launched the development of metal mesh, which they have been constantly reinventing.

Awarded the “Architecture contemporaine remarquable” label, the Bibliothèque nationale de France has marked the beginning of the development of one of Paris's largest urban planning projects, the Seine Rive gauche district.

On this occasion, BnF is holding :

- A ceremony on Sunday, March 30th 2025.

- A symposium on Monday, March 31st 2025, from 9.30am to 6pm, entitled “Imagining a library for the future”. You can find the full program for this event, organized under the patronage of the French Minister of Culture, by following this link.

Photographs :

1 and 3. Inauguration of the Bibliothèque nationale de France by President François Mitterrand, March 30, 1995. © Georges Fessy / Dominique Perrault Architecte, ADAGP

2. President François Mitterrand visiting the construction site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France with Dominique Perrault and Émile Biasini, November 06, 1992. © Guy Hersant / Dominique Perrault Architecte, ADAGP