Studio KO, the French firm founded by Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, is designing the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech in Morocco. The museum, a tribute to the late fashion designer’s work, will feature architectural references that echo fabric patterns, including locally produced terra-cotta tile designed in a tight lattice. Yves Saint Laurent, who split his time between Paris and Marrakech, was inspired by the North African city and its vibrant colors.
Saint Laurent’s work will appear in the 43,000-plus-square-foot museum, which will be primarily focused on a permanent exhibition of his couture pieces and sketches. The new building will also feature a large terrace, a restaurant and a dedicated 5,000-book fashion and design library. The space will house 5,000 pieces of clothing, 15,000 haute couture accessories and tens of thousands of sketches. As Designboom reported, the exterior of the building is composed of cubic forms that create a threadlike pattern, while the interior was “conceived like the lining of a luxurious couture jacket: luminous, velvety and smooth.”
The museum is scheduled to open in fall 2017, in tandem with the opening of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris.
