We're off for RSAP's version of the Tour de France. Paris > Lyon > La Tourette > Marseille > Bordeaux > Paris. A big clockwise loop around the country. A cross section of shifting politics, culture, history, urbanism, cuisine, what-have-you. I will bring back pictures and many a hastily-formed idea. Here, A made a map:
Bibliothèque nationale
On my way back to studio, I went to the Bibliothèque nationale, which was designed by Dominique Perrault in the late eighties/early nineties as one of Mitterand's many public projects and finished in 1996. It gets a lot of complaints about book preservation (storing books in glass towers isn't really the best idea it turns out), use (despite the towers, it is really a single large horizontal mat building, so getting from one side to the other as an employee or a visitor is tedious and time-consuming) and cost (it's free and open to the public to walk around the central corridor loop, but access to the libraries and exhibitions requires admission). And from my perspective, before visiting the project I thought there was something nice about using a public piece of architecture to frame a collective public space (the four towers are four corners of a large rectangular plaza) rather than consuming that space--a figure/ground reversal basically. But because the central plaza has a huge void in the middle for an inaccessible three-storey sunken forest, this potential for a strong, open democratic space (i'm imagining pioneer courthouse square--Portland's urban "living room" on a far larger scale) is effectively subverted. And any interest in inhabiting the public periphery of the void is dashed by the number of steps one has to climb to get to it. So, what could've been a really charged urban space is just an enormous, desolate teak landscape. It would actually be interesting to compare I.M. Pei's addition to the Louvre (also a Mitterand commission) to this building, because typologically they seem have similar ambitions--submerge the program below ground to preserve an urban space above, framed by surrounding buildings--but in my opinion the Louvre is far more successful.
But, despite all of its flaws (or maybe just because I visited the site at such a poetic time of day?) it's a really stunning piece of architecture. It is actually kind of breathtaking to see such a large site completely vacant in a city this dense. There is a real sense of grandeur to it--from the four towers extending into the sky in perspective to the monumental stepped plinth they sit on and the long sloping ramp down to the entrance--that has clearly been carefully orchestrated. You might even argue, overly orchestrated (why do you need to climb thirty steps just to take a ramp down two storeys?) but it's still successful. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for grandeur. The only view walking around the building looks into the central planted courtyard--the diagram of the building is a kind of reification of introspection. So you're looking through branches to one side with reading rooms to the other, always looking in. There's also something timeless about the materials and the massing of the building--it's not trendy, it's not about form, it (makes itself looks like it) is only concerned with proper planning and urban strategies. And given the current trend of architecture towards form as the mediator of meaning, I find that comforting.
Flickr set is here, and this is a view of the project from the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge as I was leaving:
Cimetière de Montparnasse
2nd cemetery in 3 days! Because the only place of interest close to our architecture site was this cemetery, we decided to visit it on our way back. Established in 1824, it's from the same vintage as Père-Lachaise, during a time when they were moving all the cemeteries towards the outskirts of Paris for the sake of public health in the center. It's situated on the northern edge of the 14th, just outside the 6th next to Tour Montparnasse. Like PL, a number of famous people are interred here (Charles Beaudelaire, Porfirio Diaz, Serge Gainsbourg, Man Ray, etc.) so it has its fair share of tourists, but it feels more urban and alive in the city--with residents and employees from neighboring buildings cutting across the site, taking a stroll, or stopping for a midday snack. This place doesn't seem like as much of a three dimensional postcard as its counterpart. There is a Flickr set here, if you're interested.
Site
We have our site for our studio project for the semester (a transitional housing building with about 20 units). It's at 15 rue Plaisance in the 14th. Fede and I went out there today to take a few photos and get a sense for the place. It's a really interesting site: a gap lot that spans between two streets--rue Plaisance on the northern edge and rue Thermopyles on the southern edge. The Plaisance edge is your prototypical Parisian street, with four storeys of housing above a floor of commercial and flush whitewashed facades abounding. The southern edge is far looser--three alleys converge to form the corner of the site and it gives way onto a small park and empty half lots to the east. There are some photos here.
We squeezed through the gate on Thermopyles and got to look at a ton of really amazing graffiti, which you can see here.
We squeezed through the gate on Thermopyles and got to look at a ton of really amazing graffiti, which you can see here.
Ingrid Betancourt
The other day Fede and I were walking around the sixth and through the center of Paris (photos here), and we came across this demonstration for Ingrid Betancourt at the Hotel de Ville:
She is apparently a Columbian politician/activist of French descent being held hostage by the FARC. Because she is a French citizen, her story has been getting a lot of coverage in France. Her daughter has been advocating for her release, they wrote a book about her, and there is a big poster with a tally of the number of days she's been imprisoned (2153 days and counting, which is almost exactly 6 years) hanging outside the Hotel de Ville. I don't know much about the story but if I learn some more about it, I'll update this post.
She is apparently a Columbian politician/activist of French descent being held hostage by the FARC. Because she is a French citizen, her story has been getting a lot of coverage in France. Her daughter has been advocating for her release, they wrote a book about her, and there is a big poster with a tally of the number of days she's been imprisoned (2153 days and counting, which is almost exactly 6 years) hanging outside the Hotel de Ville. I don't know much about the story but if I learn some more about it, I'll update this post.
haircut
ok, so this is me shamelessly embracing the self-indulgence of blogging. i got a haircut. kai gave me a great euro mohawk. here it is.
more apt. pics
the lovely living room / fede's bedroom combo.
the kitchen.
the breakfast nook.c'est tout!
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
Met Kai and Mary Ann this morning for a tour of the grounds of Père-Lachaise cemetery. Named after the confessor to this guy, the site was acquired from the Jesuits by Napoleon for the establishment of a cemetery in 1804. Because of its relative distance from the heart of Paris at the time, it wasn't a popular place to be buried until the city transferred some famous bodies (Moliere, La Fontaine, and supposedly Abelard and Heloise) there. This marketing scheme worked, and it quickly became the burial place of choice among Parisians. The fascination with the cult of personality here seems to live on today, with tourists (yes, including myself) visiting to stroll the grounds and snap photos at the grave sites of Chopin, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison. The cemetery is still in use today, with several very recent tombs. There's something kind of perverse about this mixture of tourism and death, with solemn family members trying to pay their respects to their loved ones and giddy American, Italian, Spanish etc tourists trying to snap a quick pic with the Lizard King and cross another famous person off their list. But regardless, the place is very beautiful and made for a pleasant, contemplative afternoon.
One of the most interesting aspects to the cemetery is the tombs--they're like miniature cathedrals. We talked a little about how our fascination with buildings extends into death, as if a small stone structure with a stained glass window and faux-Gothic spires could somehow capture the divine. Kai also brought up the fact that our burial process is a posthumous marker of our social status, which is particularly relevant in this place (with more than its fair share of elaborate tombs), but also at any cemetery I suppose. The catacombs seem to be a more "democratic" burial place, but I have yet to visit them.
Flickr set is here
RSAP map
as of yesterday, we've got a communal map going for RSAP. not much on it yet, but you can find it here.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Francoise Fromonot walking tour I
We recently had our first of several walking tours with Francoise Fromonot. It was a walk through the heart of Paris, criss-crossing the Seine from the Pavillon de L'Arsenal, across the Ille-de-St.Louis and Ille-de-la-Cite, along the Pont Neuf, Le Louvre, Le Palais Royal, and ending in the more contemporary setting of Les Halles and the Centre Pompidou.
check out the map.
some pics are up here.
check out the map.
some pics are up here.
l'appartement
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)