Louvre Lens Opens

On December 12 the Louvre Lens opens in the town of Lens in France's Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. The new branch of the world-famous museum is designed by SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) as an "opportunity to renew the identity of a region that has been strongly marked by industrial and social crisis." If this sounds familiar, Lens and the Louvre are banking that the Bilbao effect is relevant for this corner of France. If building it will make them come or not, early photos by Iwan Baan at Architectural Record reveal a metal building that sometimes disappears into the sky on the exterior; inside the glass walls recall SANAA's earlier Glass Museum in Toledo, Ohio. It elicits an ethereal presence that has become the Japanese duo's signature.