The exterior renovations

The first aim of the renovation project was to restore the buildings to their full authenticity so that the unique architectural ensemble which they formed regained its full coherence. The facade of the house in which Zadkine and Valentine Prax lived - a former outbuilding of the convent of Notre-Dame de Sion - was thus restored carefully over many months. Today it revives the whiteness of lime plaster and the grey of zinc of earlier times and has regained its appearance as an old Parisian building.

The facade of the former studios which Zadkine moved into in 1928 and the walls of the most recent one, which was constructed opposite in the 1950s - with the rendering with which they had been coated removed – have, for their part, regained their smooth, original look. The two projects were conducted in collaboration with the Local Architecture Section of the 5th and 6th Arrondissements from the City of Paris Architecture and Heritage Department.