The greatest proponent
of the super New York
scale, who also had
genuine if mistaken
concern for how people
lived, was
Le
Corbusier , the most
famous
twentieth-century
French architect. His
stature may now appear
diminished by the
ascendancy of a blander
style in concrete
boxing, as well as by
the significant
technical and social
failures of his
buildings and his total
disregard for historic
streets and monuments.
But while his
manifesto, Vers une
architecture moderne
, sounds like a call to
arms for a new and
revolutionary movement,
Le Corbusier should
perhaps be more fairly
assessed as the
original, inimitable and
highly individual artist
he undoubtedly was. You
should try to see some
of his work - there's
the Cité Radieuse
in Marseille and plenty
of examples in Paris -
to make up your own mind
about the man largely
responsible for changing
the face and form of
buildings throughout the
world.
One respect in which
Paris at the turn of the
century lagged behind
London, Glasgow, Chicago
and New York was in underground
transport . First
proposed in the 1870s,
it took twenty years of
furious debate before
the Paris métro was
finally realized in
1900. The design of the
entrances was as
controversial as every
other aspect of the
system, but the first
commission went to Hector
Guimard , renowned
for his variations on
the then-current fashion
in style. The whirling
metal railings, Art
Nouveau lettering and
bizarre antennae-like
orange lamps were his
creation. Conservatives
were less amused when it
came to sites such as
the Opéra: Charles
Garnier , architect
of that edifice,
demanded classical
marble and bronze
porticoes for every
station, and his line
was followed, on a less
grandiose scale,
wherever the métro
steps surfaced by a
major monument. Thus
Guimard was out of a
job. Some of the early
ones remain ( Place
des Abbesses , 18e,
is one), as do some of
the white-tiled
interiors, replaced
after World War II in
central stations by
bright paint with
matching seats and
display cases.
Art Nouveau
designs also found their
way onto buildings - the
early department stores
in Paris are the best
example - but the new
materials and simple
geometry of the modern
or International Style
favoured the Art Deco
look; again, you're most
likely to come across
them in the capital.
Skipping the
miserable 1950s and
1960s buildings
everywhere, France again
becomes one of the most
exciting patrons of
international contemporary
architecture . The Centre
Beaubourg , by Renzo
Piano and Richard
Rogers , derided,
adored and visited by
millions, maximizes
space by putting the
service elements usually
concealed in walls and
floors on the outside.
The visible ducts,
cables and pipes are
painted in accordance
with the colour code of
architectural plans. You
might think the whole
thing is a professional
in-joke, but the
Beaubourg is one of the
great contemporary
buildings in western
Europe - for its
originality, popularity
and practicality.
In housing ,
new styles and forms are
to be seen in city
suburbs and vacation
resorts, many of them
disastrous and visually
unappealing, but
interesting to look at
when you don't have to
live there. The latest
state-funded projects
confirm French
seriousness about
innovative design: just
outside Poitiers is the
postmodern Futuroscope
cinema and virtual
reality complex, and in
Marseilles there's
William Alsop's mammoth
seat of regional
government. Regional
projects include Nîmes'
Carré d'Art
Modern Art museum by Sir
Norman Foster,
characterized by its
simple transparent
design. The Cathédrale
d'Evry ,
masterminded by Swiss
Mario Botta and finished
in 1995, is a huge
cylindrical red-brick
tower which houses an
art centre, concert hall
and cinema screen,
besides the religious
accoutrements that befit
its function. Its roof
is slanted at 45 degrees
to receive more light,
and is crowned by 24
trees emulating the
laurel wreaths of Roman
emperors Hadrian and
Augustus. Its
stained-glass window is
at the foot of the
building and symbolizes
the roots of a tree.
President
Mitterrand's " grands
travaux "
project foregrounded a
new architectural era
for Paris in the 1980s.
He commissioned the Cité
de la Musique from
Christian de Fartzamparc
as a finishing touch to
the Parc de la
Villette complex
which was built under
Giscard d'Estaing on the
site of an old abbatoir,
and which also houses
the Cité de la Science
and Bernard Tschemi's 21
" folies
" of urban life.
The Institut du Monde
Arabe , by Jean
Nouvel - who also did
the Fondation Cartier
building and the
426-metre high,
100-storey Tour Sans
Fins in the Défense
area - is made up of
metal and glass facades
positioned to emulate
traditional Arabo-Islamic
motifs, with
light-sensitive shutters
best admired in action
on a sunny March day
with racing clouds. The
" Grand Louvre
" project displaced
the Ministry of
Finance into a huge
new building in Bercy,
thus clearing the
Richelieu wing of the
Louvre for museum use,
increasing exhibition
space by 83 percent.
Ieoh Ming Pei's glass pyramid
in the Cour Napoléon is
now loved by Parisians,
and this new entrance to
the museum takes
visitors through the
underground Carrousel du
Louvre and its
boutiques. The Grande
Arche de la Défense
, designed by Von
Spreckelsen is a square
arch aligned on the map
and in mathematical
proportions with the Arc
de Triomphe - except
that the former also has
a fibreglass cloud hung
in the space under the
arch. Situated at the
west of Paris, it is
emblematic of the new
business district - not
quite the centre of
communication that
Mitterrand had wanted -
housing 87,000 square
metres of office space.
The Opéra Bastille
by Carlos Ott was
designed to be a
"modern and
popular"
alternative to the Opéra
Garnier. Although the
sound unfortunately
resonates, the crowds
still flock to see the
performances.
The new Bibliothèque
Nationale in the 13e
arrondissement
fits in extraordinarily
well with the
surrounding tower
blocks. Designed by
Dominique Perrault, it's
a complex made up of
four corners, which
represent four open
books. This apparently
facile design is made up
for by the complexity
(and expense) of the
detail. The aluminium
shutters are covered in
rare oukoumé
reddish wood, which
contrasts with the grey ipé
and yellow doussié
wood, to give the
impression from a
distance that the towers
are bookshelves
containing different
bound volumes. By the
year 2001, it will house
more than 350,000 books
stored under the four
and is divided into
separate sections for
academics and the
general public. The
interior design is
metallic and wood-based,
and the library is a
shrine to multimedia
with excellent
audiovisual research
capacities.
The country's
ever-advancing transport
network has provided
sites for some of the
most high-tech office
buildings with
state-of-the-art
engineering in Europe,
as at Eurolille ,
the complex around
Lille's TGV station, and
in Roissy ,
around the
Charles-de-Gaulle
airport. The TGV Lyon-Satolas
station is another
typical 1990s creation,
both elegant and
thrustingly optimistic.
The new European
Parliament building
in Strasbourg, designed
by the Architecture
Studio group, was
finished in 1997, and is
a huge boomerang-shaped
structure with a glass
dome and metal tower.
Most recently, the Stade
de France in
St-Denis, near Paris,
was built to host many
of the World Cup 98
matches, including, as
it happened, the French
victory in the final.
Meanwhile, the
futuristic Antigone
housing and commercial
development in
Montpellier, laid out by
Ricard Bofill and
inaugurated in 1984,
continues to grow, with
the opening in autumn
2000 of Paul Chemetov's
new library building.
But the French are
also very good at
preserving the past.
Throughout the country
you'll see far older
period streets -
medieval and Renaissance
- that look as though
they've never been
touched. More often than
not, the restoration has
been carried out by the Maisons
de Compagnonage ,
the old craft guilds,
which have maintained
traditional building
skills, handing them
down as of old from
master to apprentice
(and never to women),
while also taking on new
industrial skills.
Above all, though,
bear in mind the extent
and variety of
architecture in France
and don't feel
intimidated by the
established sights. If
the empty grandeur of
the Loire châteaux is
oppressive, there are
numerous smaller country
houses open to the
public, and such
municipal buildings as
the Hôtels de Ville
tend to offer some charm
or amusement, even in
the smallest towns.
It is also possible
in France to experience
whole towns as
consistent places of
architecture, not only
Carcassonne and
Aigues-Mortes, Dinan and
Nancy, but villages off
the main roads in which
time seems to have
stopped long ago. And,
besides, from any hotel
bedroom you can simply
delight in what Le
Corbusier called
"the magnificent
play of forms seen in
light", in the
movement of morning
sunlight over ordinary
provincial tiles and
chimneys.
