Design: Architecture / Annecy
Outer space
By adding satellites to its distinctive 1960s spaceship design, Nouvelles Galeries has reestablished connections with its host city.
For the better part of 50 years, people passing through Annecy in southeast France would be forgiven for thinking the small Alpine city doubles as the set for a long-running science-fiction TV show. This is largely due to the spaceship-like building on the edge of the city centre. Called Nouvelles Galeries, it’s the conurbation’s defining piece of architecture –and it looks like a grounded ufo. Built to the design of French architect Antoine Dory in 1969, it has a box-like department store at its centre, wrapped in a circular car park.
Its striking…
