Le Monde HQ Sketchbooks
A hand-drawn diary
2023–2025
Introduction
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Le Monde's headquarters in Paris, Snøhetta has released the Le Monde HQ Sketchbooks, an artistic documentation of the building's construction by French artist Frédéric Chaume.
Between 2017 and 2020, Chaume visited the site over 250 times, capturing the evolution of the building through a series of hand-drawn sketches and engravings. His work offers a unique, artistic perspective on the construction process, highlighting moments rich in human activity and urban transformation.
The book features a curated selection of 232 artworks and was designed and published by Snøhetta to commemorate the building's milestone. It reflects the vision of investor and chairman of the board, Pierre Bergé, who emphasized the importance of preserving the project's cultural legacy beyond mere technical documentation.
The book was released for sale in Norway and Scandinavia in June 2025, and will be launched in France this autumn, with global distribution to be confirmed.
Technical details
Film and photos by OiOiOi
Preserving history
Le Monde's new headquarters was designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with SRA Architectes and completed in 2020. It houses 1,600 employees of the Le Monde Group under the same roof in a unifying, arch-shaped building near Gare d'Austerlitz station in Paris, built above active railway lines. With its open plaza and semi-transparent outer skin, the building connects to the general public and surrounding areas while offering workers and passersby a generous public space in the city.
From the outset, investor and chairman of the board, Pierre Bergé, emphasized the importance of preserving the story behind the building—not just through technical records but through cultural memory. In response, Frédéric Chaume was commissioned to document the process through hand-drawn illustrations, offering a more expressive and enduring record than traditional photography.
A dialogue with the site
Chaume's artistic process unfolded in two stages. Following the site's safety regulations, he could move freely and work anywhere on the site. The initial phase involved making notes and drawings to document the site's progress, using sketchbooks as a medium for experimentation with drawing tools such as black chalk, charcoal, and watercolors.
The second phase took place in the studio, where he created numerous works using copper engravings and drawings on paper. The final prints of the engravings were produced by a master of intaglio printing at Les Ateliers Moret in Paris.
Frédéric Chaume’s drawings go beyond mere documentation. They embody an intimate dialogue between the site, its workers, and the surrounding environment, offering a poetic view of the construction process and the traces left by human activities.
Photos by OiOiOi
Enriched perspectives
The works are further enriched by poems from Lamiya Shirvanzada, an introduction by Snøhetta's co-founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, and essays by architect and historian Jean-Louis Cohen and Aedes Architecture Forum director Kristin Feireiss. Together, these contributions deepen the reader's understanding of Chaume's work, framing the artwork within broader architectural and cultural discourses.
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