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The Bourse de Commerce is kind of like that one architectural concept you think would never work in real life, but does on a spectacular level. One of my favourite things to do is visit art galleries and museums, and one of my favourite architects ever is Tadao Ando, so this was really the perfect combination of worlds colliding. Add to that, the icing on the cake: the 360 degree panorama on the ceiling from 1889 was completed by no less than 5 different artists. You'd never have thought that 20th-century concrete could compete (and compliment) with architecture from the 16th century, but it somehow works incredibly well.
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It's also interesting to note the fact that each part of architecture added which changed the building and that remain today were commissioned by powerful, well-connected, and rich people in different eras - from Catherine de Medici in the 16th century who was the first to commission the Hotel de Soissons as the Bourse de Commerce's original incarnation, to Henri Pinault, one of the world's richest men in the 21st century and to whom the building now belongs. It's funny to see that not much has changed about humans in the past few hundred years - symbols of power and status combined with our innate desire to leave a mark on the ground we tread has lead to the shaping of our landscape today.
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Even though I honestly had mixed feelings about the art housed in the Bourse, I loved the atrium a lot, and the feel of the concrete. It's one thing to see Ando's structures in pictures, and another to feel and be within them up close and personal. It's the perfect space for the installation on the wide screen, while the audio fills up the space and creates distorting echoes. There is also a small cinema in the basement for short featured films.
