Architecture magazine Wallpaper covers the Musée national de la Marine, which opened in Paris on Friday.

Claire Dowdy of Wallpaper writes: "France’s Musée National de la Marine has been brought up to date by a team comprising h2o Architectes, Snøhetta and exhibition designers Casson Mann."

"The three practices were brought in to broaden the appeal of this long, dark, narrow museum, and to increase the exhibition space. At the same time, rather than just focusing on France’s naval history, it needed to present all manner of marine issues, from commerce, sport, leisure, travel and war, to peace, fear, loss and survival."

"To that end, for Roger Mann of Casson Mann: 'It was about striking a balance between introducing modern immersive elements with a more traditional display of the incredible collection.'"

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"The exhibition designers have form with Snøhetta, as they both worked on the new museum at France’s world-renowned cave painting site Lascaux. Meanwhile, h2o last year completed the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris."

"In the new-look 190m-long museum, a big open lobby area boasts a timber reception desk, lockers and the inevitable bleacher seating. This leads on to the double-height gallery space, which is punctuated by three super-size sculptural elements from Casson Mann: a 7m-tall ship’s hull, a clutch of shipping containers, and a continuous wave projected onto a new curved wall the width of the gallery."

"At the end of the ground floor is the show-stopper: La Réale is a gilt sculpture from one of Louis XIV’s galleys. Suspended at the height they would have originally been seen, these vast, intricate pieces look like the inspiration for a WWF wrestler’s belt."

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