PARIS

Parc de la Villette
The competition for the Parc de la Villette was organized by the French Government in
053
1982. Its objectives were both to mark the vision of an era and to act upon the future eco-
nomic and cultural development of a key area in Paris. As with other "Grands Projets
such as the Opera at Bastille, the Louvre Pyramid, or the Arch at Tête-Défense, the Parc
de la Villette was the center of numerous polemics, first at the time of the competition,
when landscape designers violently opposed the challenges of architects, then during
governmental changes and various general budgetary crises.
The Parc de la Villette is located on one of the last remaining large sites in Paris, a 125
acre expanse previously occupied by the central slaughter houses and situated on the
northeast corner of the city, between the Metro stations Porte de Pantin and Porte de la
Villette. Over one kilometer long in one direction and seven hundred meters in the other,
La Villette appears as a multiple programmatic field, containing, in addition to the park, a

Industry, City of Music, Grande Halle for exhibitions,

large Museum of Science and a a

and a rock concert hall.

land-
Despite its name, the park as designated in the competition was to be no simple
brief for this "Urban Park for the 21st Century" devel-
scape replica. On the contrary, the
of cultural and entertainment facilities, encompassing open-air
ops a complex program video
theaters, restaurants, art galleries, music and painting workshops, playgrounds,
where cultural invention, rather
and computer displays, as well as the obligatory gardens
than natural recreation, was encouraged. The object of the competition was to select a
and also build the structuring elements
chief architect who would oversee the master plan
and other architects were to contribute a vari-
of the park. Artists, landscape designers,
ety of gardens or buildings.

Systems and Superimpositions

but is located in a
motivated the fact that the site is not "virgin land,"
by
Our project was
the
and includes two enormous existing structures,
populated semi-industrial quarter, the idea of intro
and the Grande Halle. Rejecting
Museum of Science and Technology encumbered terrain and
of a linear character, into an already
ducing another mass, even structural
of the program, we proposed a simple
respecting the extensive requirements in a regular
requirements over the total site
solution: to distribute the programmatic the into
as Folies. Deconstructing program
of points of intensity, designated
arrangement and use, this
to existing site characteristics
intense areas of activity placed according discoveries and pre-
maximum movement through
the site, emphasizing
scheme permits
events.
senting visitors with a variety of programs and
motivated by
architecture are generally related
to cultural developments
in
Developments advances. We have taken this as
social relations, or technological
new functions, as structural model,
axiomatic for our scheme, which
aims to constitute itself as image, that has
of architectural organization.
Proper to a period
and as a paradigmatic example this concept for the
serial repetition, and disjunction,
seen the rise of mass production, them to
similarity allows
series of related neutral objects whose very
of a undifferentiated,
park consists basic structure each
Folie is bare,
De qualified" by function. Thus, in its articulated,
in the specialization of its program it is complex, indicates
and "industria" in character; autonomous sign
that
constitutes an
weighted with meaning. Each Folie suggesting, through
a
and c o n c e r n s and
possibilities while vana-
Independent programmatic theme and
S
interplay of
total system. This
structural core, the unity of the maximum
permitting pro
Common and structurally,
while
uon allows the park to read symbolically
grammatic flexibility and invention.
 An Urban Park for the 21st
The competition
for the Parc de la
Century (Competition
Villette is the first in
recent
Document)
foth a new
program-that of the "urban
Park,
architectural history to
proposing that the juxtaposition set 055
bination of a varietyof activities will arnd com-
encourage new attitudes and
aram represents an
important breakthrough. The 70s perspectives, This nro-
interest in the formal constitution of the
city, its
witnessed a period of
renewed
developing analyses focused on the
typologies and
morphologies. While
history of the
city, this attention was
of orogrammatic justification. No analySIs addressed the issue of the largely devoid
to occur in the city. Nor did any properly address the fact that activities that were
tions and events was as much the organization of
an architectural concern as the
func
styles. elaboration of forms or

The Parc de la Villette, in contrast, represents an open-air cultural

center,
related both to the city's needs and to its encouraging
an
integrated programmatic policy limitations. The
program allocates space for workshops, gymnasium and bath
facilities,
exhibitions, concerts, scientific experiments, games and competitions, in playgrounds,
addition to a
Museum of Science and Technology and a City of Music. The
park could be conceived
as one of the largest buildings ever constructed-a discontinuous
building, but neverthe
less a single structure, overlapping in certain areas with the city and existing suburbs. It
forms an embryonic model of what the new programs for the 21st century will be.

During the 20th century we have witnessed a shift in the concept of the park, which can
no longer be separated from the concept of the city. The park forms part of the vision of
the city. The fact that Paris concentrates tertiary or professional employment argues
against passive "esthetic" parks of repose in favor of new urban parks based on cultural
invention, education, and entertainment. The inadequacy of the civilization vs. nature
polarity under modern city conditions has invalidated the time-honored prototype of the

park as an image of nature. It can no longer be conceived as an undefiled utopian world-

in-miniature, protected from vile reality.

What wesee, then, is the exhaustion of the "open space"

concept faced with the reality
of the cultural park. Hence we oppose the notion of Olmsted,
widespread throughout the
to exist." To create false hills hid-
19th century, that "in the park, the city is not supposed
the power of urban reality.
ing the Périphérique ignores

A New Model in
distinctive and innovative
kind of park, embodying a change
We propose, instead, a our
amb
in ideology implicit in the program,
Extending the radical shift
Social context. of its compo
variation on an existing type
by altering one
uon goes beyond producing a nor to fit the
a traditional content,
while retaining
nents. We aim neither to change styles
neo
neo-romantic, or
neo-classical, whether
conventional mold, within
ine
proposed program into a constructive principle
motivated by the most and inspi-
odernist. Rather, our project is rammatic
developments

by which new progra

egtimatehistory" of architecture,
ambition is to
create a new
model in wnic piog
Eions result in new typologies. Our

form, and ideology all integral roles.

play
Points Lines Surfaces
PARIS

Points point-like activities 057

(a)
Lines linear activities
(b)
(c)
Surfaces surface activities

1. Points

The Folies are placed according to a point-grid cOordinate system at

OrOvide a common denominator for all events generated by the120-meter intervals
contial to the program. Each is basically a 10 x 10 x 10 meter cube,program. Each is
construction of neutral space, that can be transformed and elaborated
or a
three-story
cific programmatic needs. according to SDe-

The strict repetition of the basic 10 x 10 x 10 meter Folie is aimed at

symbol for the park,
developing a clear
a
recognizable identity as strong as the British telephone booth or
the Paris Metro gates.

The advantages of this

grid system are manifold. it is by far the
simplest system estab-
lishing territorial recognition and one that is easily implemented. It lends itself to
easy
maintenance. The structure provides a comprehensive image or shape for an otherwise
ill-defined terrain. The regularity of routes and positioning makes orientation simple for
those unfamiliar with the area. The advantage of the point-grid system is that it
provides
for the minimum adequate equipment of the urban park relative to the number of its visi-

2. Lines
The Folie grid is related to a larger coordinate structure (the Coordinates), an orthogonal
system of high-density pedestrian movement that marks the site with a cross. The North-
South Passage or Coordinate links the two Paris gates and subway stations of Porte de
la Villete and Porte de Pantin, the East-West Coordinate joins Paris to its suburbs. A
five-meter-wide, open, covered structure runs the length of both Coordinates. Organized
around the Coordinates so as to facilitate and encourage access are Folies designated
for the most requented activities: the City of Music, restaurants, Square of the Baths, art
and science displays, children's playgrounds, video workshops and Sports Center

The Line system also includes the Path of Thematic Gardens, the seemingly random
Curvilinear route that links various parts of the park in the form of a carefully-planned cir-
Cuit. The Path of Thematic Gardens intersects the Coordinate axes at various places,
providing unexpected encounters with unusual aspects of domesticated or "programmed"
nature
3. Surfaces
Ihe surfaces of the park receive all activities requiring large expanses of horizontal space
tof play, games, body exercises, mass entertainment, markets, etc. Each surfaca is pro-

cally determined. So-called left-over surfaces (when every aspect of the pro-
gram has been fulfiled) are composed of compacted earth and gravel, a park maten
O a l l Parisians. Earth and gravel surfaces allow for complete programmatic iree
dom.
 structurai
System
of t h e
Folies

ropetiivo systan,
s ) oi a 10 meer t i 16g me
063
the name
Eolios use
tYirge in 9ath i r e i r , tmirg
cube is then divirled
in a
cube The
36 foot)
x bars
(36x36
between
with 3.6 meterm (12 feet)

esterded thrn te an
cage
a Cage,
n o agrrmerns
decompos0d
be ohumes, stairs,
Tha cage
can
ne or two-story cylindrical or triangular rarm)
other eleme while sinutan90sly
sirnultaneoushy (and indeperdert
ingee

of combinatory principles,
tion of
to a variety
The primary structure (the cane)
according equirernents.

Confronting
specific
programmane

steel or any other material, tor hat ra

c o n c r e t g or
c a n be
frame that
acording to fire c s e
of a reyirements
composed structural material
1s made

0r The selection
of the
enameled-steel envelop6 COvers every pan f the str
conditions. A red cantilever or
or
economic
to solve every
interior or exterior corner,
so as
tsural frame.
It is designed

edge condition
construction principle, deviation aiters the rela
from a sirnple
Folies proceed support around which
a
Although the then becomes a sinple
structural grid. The grid The reiationship
tionship to the
norn.
to the original
relation
architecture can develop in Folies
the elaboration of the
transgressive a method for
deviation suggests with the
and are confronted
between normality derived from the program
and constraints The controntation
First, requirements t r a n s t o r m a t i o n principles
of the project.
combination and
architectonic the norm is transgressed-wit
Then,
the "norm.
architectural state: deviation
results in a
basic norm results:
A distortion of the original
disappearing.
out, however,
contains the com-
norm, it
and irrationality. As a
the e x c e s s of
rationality towards
Deviation is both
Normality tends
deviation, it frees them.
As a of oppo
own explosion.
d i s s o c i a t i o n . This
is not a coupling
ponents of its and determined?
towards heterogeneity of deviation
unity; deviation, How a r e these degrees Folie is not
instead, a matter of degree. demands. A "normal
Sites but, circumstances,
client
time, money,
hrough economy, one.
as a
"deviant"
built in the same m a n n e r
 Frames and Sequences
The Cinematic Promenade is one of the
key features of the
the analogy of a film strip, in which the park. t is
SOund-track corresponcta
conceived alon
for visitors and the image-track corresponds to the successive to the
t
dens. The linearity of sequences orders events, frames general walkway
movements, and ndividual
dual gar-
sion that either combines or parallels divergent concerns.
Each part,spaces in apro
sequence qualifies reinforces, alters the parts that
or
precede and toll eachraneframe of
ations thus formed allow for a plurality of interpretations rather The asscci a
than a sin.
part is thus both complete and incomplete. If the
general lar fact. Each
structure of the
gardens requires the indetermination of its content (hence the role of quence ot
sequences), its specific content chiet chitec
as film director, overseeing the montage of
the
minacy (through the particular designs of individual
designers). The implies,
park is alsn in
ed: sequences of events, use, activities, incidents are
fixed spatial sequences. It suggests secret
inevitably superimposed on those+
maps and impossible
lections of events all strung along a collection of fictions, ramblinn c
spaces, frame after frame,
garden, episode after episode. garden at er
At La Villette, frame means each of the
a
segments of the sequence: in the
promenade, each frame defines a
garden. Each of these frames can cinematic
gle piece of work. be turned into a sin-

The framing principle permits the

with the arrangement of each part of the
cinegrams of a film, each frame can be sequence since, as
infinitely. Moreover, the content of each mixed, combined,
producing frame can be shown superimposed, etc.,
from above or from
unusual viewpoints. The
independently from the meanings they spatial sequences at La Villette also can bebelow
may suggest. Their seen
directly from the events
occurring in the sequence. (A row signification can be deduced
roller-skating space undoubtedly of slides, a sand
imply a children's box, anda
In
literature and in the
sequence.)
ulated cinema, the
through devices such as relations between frames or
chitecture or in sequences can be manip
landscape? Atflashbacks,
established by means La Villette,jumpcuts, dissolves, and so on.
the Why not n
of an cut between
intersecting line of trees. two garden
sequences