This homepage is a preview of the future National Design Gallery website. The full site is currently under
construction.
The Project
The National Design Gallery will open its doors in Saint‑Étienne in June 2026, at the heart of the Cité du
design district.
This unique venue in France, co-managed by the public establishment Cité du design‑Ésad Saint‑Étienne and the
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint‑Étienne Métropole (MAMC+), will present annual exhibitions
designed by a guest curator using objects from French public collections.
The Scientific and Cultural Project
It is at the heart of a rapidly transforming district, driven by Saint‑Étienne Métropole, that the National
Design Gallery will deploy 1,000 m² of exhibition, mediation, and experimentation spaces.
By gathering, through exhibitions, design collections preserved in various French cultural institutions (Cnap,
MNAM – Centre Pompidou, MAMC+, Mobilier National, Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, MADD Bordeaux, FRAC Grand
Large…), the National Design Gallery will valorize this rich and varied heritage in a single location. Its
steering committee brings together representatives from Cnap, MNAM – Centre Pompidou, and the Ministry of
Culture. This committee of experts, from the world of culture and design, guides and defines the Gallery's
scientific project.
In Saint‑Étienne, design has been a trademark since the industrial revolution. The MAMC+ has perpetuated this
local industrial history by building a design collection since 1987. A pioneer in this field, it is now the most
important French collection of objects from manufactured design. Thus, the direction of the National Design
Gallery is entrusted to Aurélie Voltz, who ensures the conception and production of exhibitions
and publications with the MAMC+ teams.
The event programming associated with the exhibitions, mediation activities, and communication are carried by
the teams of the EPCC Cité du design‑Ésad Saint‑Étienne, directed by designer Éric
Jourdan.
The Architectural Project
The Lyon-based architecture firm SILT has been selected to rehabilitate the building that will
house the National Design Gallery. Accompanied by the scenographers-museographers dUCKS
Scéno, it works to highlight the identity of the place while
proposing a modular and evolving project. SILT has designed an architectural showcase adapted to the new
functions of the building while preserving its industrial past.
A Committed CSR Approach
The National Design Gallery wished to place the notion of sustainability at the heart of its project. The
rehabilitation of the building by the architecture firm SILT is carried out thanks to the sourcing of
sustainable materials and particular attention paid to reducing the building's energy expenses.
The scenographic project realized by Éric Benqué will be designed to adapt to three consecutive years in an
eco-design approach. More than 50% of the scenography of each exhibition will indeed be reused for the next one.
Furthermore, the National Design Gallery has commissioned a duo of designers, Marie and
Alexandre — accompanied by the manufacturer Alki—, to design modular and repairable
furniture for 'The Mezzanine' space. This furniture is open to edition to meet the needs of other cultural
institutions.
The Spaces
An Exhibition Space
The exhibition hall will take the form of a large nave, modular according to the projects. The scenographic
design of the first three exhibitions has been entrusted to scenographer Éric Benqué,
associated with graphic designers Atelier Pentagon.
In a pedagogical and accessibility approach, visitors will be welcomed in a hall open to all with free access,
furnished by design furniture and object publishing houses. This space named "The Threshold" will allow
approaching the history of the project, the mobilized heritage collections, as well as pedagogical tools that
redefine this discipline. It will be possible to touch, manipulate, and experiment with the furniture made
available. Overlooking, "The Mezzanine" will be a space dedicated to pedagogical activities. It will
particularly host practical workshops designed in connection with the exhibitions. These workshops will be based
on the themes developed by the curators or, more broadly, on the practice and universe of artists and
designers. "The Mezzanine" will also offer varied cultural programming: meetings, conferences, project
presentations, etc. For the first three years, this programming will be entrusted to designer Ruedi
Baur and sociologist and anthropologist Vera Baur, as part of their residency "Civic
City at the Cité du design".
The inaugural exhibition draws its theme from the word "manufacture", in reference to
the former Arms Manufacture of Saint-Étienne. It explores the notion of the hand as a symbol and
instrument of design, linked to the driving and semantic forces of design, which is presented as a
timeless human practice. The collections of MAMC+, Cnap, Centre Pompidou, MADD Bordeaux, FRAC Grand
Large, and other institutions will be highlighted.
Design historian and author of numerous texts on design and historical and contemporary material
culture, Laurence Mauderli teaches history and theory of design at the Higher School of Art and Design
of Saint-Étienne.
Art historian, Chantal Prod'Hom directed the mudac (Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied
Arts) in Lausanne from 2000 to 2022. Previously, she was a curator at the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts
in Lausanne and worked as director of Fabrica, Benetton's communication research center in Treviso
(Italy). Winner of the Swiss Grand Prix for Design in 2023, she also chaired the committee of the
Plateforme 10 project in Lausanne.
Journalist then independent curator, Marie Pok co-founded the Design September festival in Brussels in
2006, and served as its artistic director until 2011. Since 2012, she has directed the CID (Center for
Innovation and Design) at Grand-Hornu, in Belgium. In 2020, she was appointed member of the Foundation
Council of Plateforme 10 in Lausanne.
Partners
The National Design Gallery is being built in partnership with major cultural institutions, each custodian of a
part of the national design heritage:
Other French design collections will be associated with the exhibitions: the Museum of Decorative Arts in
Paris, the Mobilier National, and the Museum of the City of Saint‑Quentin‑en‑Yvelines will thus be partners of
the first exhibition, Design in Hand.
Patrons and Ambassadors
The National Design Gallery relies on a network of patrons and ambassadors.
Independent designers and those integrated within large companies, prescribing specialists, the ambassadors
of the National Design Gallery are personalities from the design world who support and accompany the development
and influence of the venue and its projects among professionals, institutions, and national and international
companies.
Contact us
The Cité du Design District
Saint-Étienne is the only French metropolis member of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Design network. On the site
of the former National Arms Manufacture, the Cité du design is at the heart of Saint-Étienne's DNA. A link
between industrial heritage and contemporary creation, and composed of a great diversity of actors,
it is undergoing full transformation, driven by Saint-Étienne Métropole, to become the first design district in
France. Learn
more.
About
EPCC Cité du design and Ésad Saint-Étienne
Training the creators of tomorrow and acting towards all audiences to anchor design at the heart of our
society: this is the mission of the public establishment for cultural cooperation Cité du design - Ésad
Saint-Étienne. Located in the heart of the Cité du design district, it groups together, by weaving strong
links between them, the training and research activities of the Higher School of Art and Design of
Saint-Étienne, and dissemination activities (exhibitions, workshops, editions, within the framework of La
Platine, La Cabane, or the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennale). A unique place for discovery and
experimentation of design, the establishment is supported by the City of Saint-Étienne and Saint-Étienne
Métropole, with the support of the State and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.
MAMC+
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint‑Étienne Métropole (MAMC+) is the first modern art museum
created in the region in 1987. Its collection, of nearly 23,000 works, is among the most important in
France.
It includes a majority of 20th-century pieces, but also a collection of ancient art, design, and
photographs. The design collection, initiated at the creation of the museum, includes more than 2,000
objects
as well as 600 drawings and models. It preserves four designer funds: Michel Mortier, René‑Jean Caillette,
studio Totem, Savinel & Rozé. In all, 27 exhibitions related to design have been carried by the museum
since the late 1980s.
