A Venice sneak peek into the new Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel
A new home for Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel will open later this year in Paris; in the meantime, the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 offered the perfect platform for a sneak preview of what's to come

If you are missing the celebrated Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain home at Boulevard Raspail, then head to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, and the foundation's collateral event at Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the majestic Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. There, a sneak preview exhibition of what's to come at the next Jean Nouvel structure for Fondation Cartier, which is set to open later in the year, might quench your thirst until the public opening of the new structure on 25 October 2025.
What's to come at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris
When it was announced that the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris is moving homes from its well-known, existing 1994-designed space on Boulevard Raspail by Jean Nouvel to a new building at the 19th-century Place du Palais-Royal, it took audiences by surprise. Not only because of the change itself, but also as the new home, also designed by Nouvel (in an existing historic building), promises an immersive, kinetic and fully 21st-century experience.
'Moving into such an impressive site, in terms of location and history, entails a form of invention. And what is invented is not automatically seen in the steel or stone. The space is marked by a different way of doing: a way of conceiving how artists can have maximum power of expression,' Jean Nouvel told us at the time.
'A site such as this one calls for boldness, courage that artists might not necessarily demonstrate in other institutional spaces. The Fondation Cartier will likely be the institution offering the greatest differentiation of its spaces, the most diverse exhibition forms and viewpoints. Here, it is possible to do what cannot be done elsewhere, by shifting the system of the act of showing.'
The new building will be inaugurated this coming autumn, and the newly opened show in Venice offers glimpses of what's to come, in the shape of large scale, immersive renders, photos and film; drawings providing detail into the construction and feel of different areas within the building, including its movable platforms and adaptable nature; and a generous model, arranged in a way that allows the visitor to walk in it and take in the building's interior and kinetic potential.
The show, no doubt, will whet appetites to explore the new space once available; and in the meantime, inspire conversations around the future of art exhibitions, cultural architecture and cross-disciplinary creation. A public programme including participants such as Jean Nouvel, Cecilia Puga, Andrés Jaque, Lina Ghotmeh, Manuel Segade and Antoine Picon, will accompany the exhibition.
The exhibition 'The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel' will be on show until 14 September 2025 on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Gubi brings back Pierre Paulin’s space-age ‘F300’ chair, where tech meets craft
Wallpaper* speaks with Gubi CEO Marie Schmidt to learn how the Danish brand’s team of ‘furniture detectives’ brought Pierre Paulin’s 1968 ‘F300’ chair back to life
-
London label Talia Byre’s alternative bridalwear: ‘Have a white moment, but turn it on its head’
Talia Lipkin-Connor of London-based label Talia Byre eschews tradition with her first bridal collection, which sees archival designs reimagined in ‘lived-in’ shades of white
-
PlayLab opens its archive, blending workspace, library and shop in a new LA interior
Creative studio PlayLab opens its Los Angeles workspace and archive to the public for the first time, revealing a dedicated space full of pop treasures
-
A love letter to the panache and beauty of diagrams: OMA/AMO at the Prada Foundation in Venice
‘Diagrams’, an exhibition by AMO/OMA, celebrates the powerful visual communication of data as a valuable tool of investigation; we toured the newly opened show in Venice’s Prada Foundation
-
Norman Foster and Porsche reimagine movement at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale
Norman Foster Foundation and Porsche collaborate on 'Gateway to Venice's Waterway', a flagship installation at the 19th global architecture biennale
-
How was Carlo Ratti’s ‘Intelligens’? Wallpaper* editors discuss the 19th Venice Biennale
Having visited ‘Intelligens’, the 19th Venice Biennale's main show by curator Carlo Ratti, the Wallpaper* editors discuss what they saw at the world's biggest global architecture festival
-
Sustainability underpins new Rolex Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale
Designed by architect Mariam Issoufou, the Rolex Pavilion is full of sustainably-minded soul – here’s what to expect from the building and the exhibit
-
Holcim and Alejandro Aravena reveal sustainable housing unit in Venice
The construction company and the Chilean architect launch innovative carbon-sink technology for housing at the Venice Architecture Biennale
-
Enter the world of Cave Bureau, and its architectural and geological explorations
Nairobi practice Cave Bureau explores architecture’s role in the geological afterlives of colonialism, as part of a team exhibiting at the British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
-
Meet Lisbeth Sachs, the lesser known Swiss modernist architect
Pioneering Lisbeth Sachs is the Swiss architect behind the inspiration for creative collective Annexe’s reimagining of the Swiss pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
-
Stay in a Parisian apartment which artfully balances minimalism and warmth
Tour this pied-a-terre in the 7th arrondissement, designed by Valeriane Lazard