Living Museum: Salvaging Le Corbusier’s Floating Refuge

In February 2018 La péniche Louise-Catherine sank under the River Seine after a period of intense rain. This seemingly anonymous 70m long ferrocement barge is a lesser known work of Le Corbusier. In 2008 Louise Catherine was designated a historic monument by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles. Patrons of Le Corbusier in Ahmedabad are devastated by the deterioration of the vessel and are planning a Festival marking the 100th anniversary of the Louise Catherine, in Ahmedabad in 2029. This will include building a full scale replica vessel to be moored on the Sabarmati River in front of the Mill Owners’ Building. This Studio will design a living museum for the barge is under construction and the barge as a completed urban artifact. Proposals will house the construction of the barge and supporting festival facilities on the river edge. The rive intervention will be imagined as a series of props that sit within or atop a floating dry dock on the Sabarmati: both a temporary boatyard and living museum. This will enable the remaking of the vessel to be a spectacle for participants, curious observers and the city. Between the barge and the Mill Owners’ building, we will design a series of connecting facilities to celebrate the legacy of Le Corbusier in Ahmedabad.