French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would benefit from more "audacious" designs at the opening of a new $111-million museum dedicated to French architecture, located in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Sarkozy was on hand Monday to inaugurate the City of Architecture and Heritage, a vast 23,000-square-metre space within the Chaillot Palace.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the inauguration of the Architecture and Heritage City in Paris, urged more audacious and creative designs for the future.
(Eric Feferberg/Associated Press)

In his speech on Monday, Sarkozy said he hopes to "give new ambition and a new creative dynamic" to his government's architectural policy.

"The hell of urban life is paved with the best architectural intentions," he said. "It is time to return to humane, sensitive, creative architecture."

The new museum will feature exhibits spanning 800 years of French architecture, including everything from cathedrals to monuments, to buildings. It also houses an architecture institute and library.

"Our aim is to offer a walk through and the opportunity to discover architecture, from the Middle Ages to today," said museum director Marie-Paul Arnauld.

Among the 350 works displayed, mostly scaled-down models of buildings, are copies of wall-mounted works and murals from between the 12th and 16th century.

There's also a recreation of an apartment from the Cite Radieuse in Marseille by architect Le Corbusier.

Arnauld said the museum hopes to attract half a million visitors annually.

Only four months into his presidency, Sarkozy took the opportunity to invite many of the world's top architects to meet with him in Paris.

The president is eager to create something of note on the landscape.  French presidents have traditionally left architectural legacies: Francois Mitterrand left his mark with the Louvre Pyramid and the Bastile Opera, while Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, created the Quai Branly Museum of tribal arts.

Sarkozy is to meet with a group of 14 designers, including:

• British architect Norman Foster, involved in the redesign of the German Reichstag.
• Iraqi-British avant-garde architect Zaha Hadid.
• Shigeru Ban of Japan.
• Swiss Jacques Herzog, who designed London's Tate Modern museum.
• American Thom Mayne.