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Paris skyline gets 21st century look

KARREN BEANLAND,

a former staff

reporter on ‘The Press’ now on a journalism study course in France, finds exciting new buildings coming on to the Paris scene.

Travellers who arrive in Paris looking for historical wonders will never be disappointed. Yet the excitement of Paris today comes from a futuristic building programme designed to launch the city headlong into the twenty-first century.

The buzz-words around Paris now are modernism, high technology, and "la nouvelle culture.’’ This spirit of the future is being expressed in a series of architectural adventures that will have a big impact on the face of the city.

Paris has always had her lovers. Throughout modem times, architects and politicians have left their imprint by erecting fine buildings, monuments, and fountains, and laying out gracious boulevards in a neverending endeavour to make it one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

The 1980 s, in spite of the enduring economic recession, are no different. Even the Socialist President, Francois Mitterrand, has been unable to resist his passion for the city. He has presided over one of the biggest building booms Paris has seen. “I am in love with Paris,” he says, unabashedly.

Mitterrand is not alone in his desire. While the State is pouring funds into a clutch of massive building projects, most of which will cater to the cultural needs of the city, the conservative mayor of Paris, and likely presidential candidate, Jacques Chirac, is master-minding the redevelopment of a huge swath of the city to the east.

Mitterrand’s big projects are

estimated to cost 15.6 thousand million francs ($3866 million), at 1984 prices. Chirac has been no less lavish, although his scheme has not yet attracted the same amount of public attention. Since 1984, the Paris city council has spent at least 850 million francs ($219 million) a year on its projects in the east. The most interesting of the State projects, which Mitterrand sees as laying the groundwork for urban civilisation in France into the twenty-first century, are the Louvre and la Tete Defense.

At the Louvre, an ultra-modem transparent glass pyramid is being built to mark a new entrance to the stolid seventeenth century buildings. The Ministry of Finance, which shared part of the space in the former palace, is being shifed to a new 350-metre-long building which resembles a gigantic arm of reinforced concrete, one end rising from the Seine. It will accommodate 5300 bureaucrats. La Tete Defence, a bold open cubic building, will be the crowning glory of La Defence, a district of high-rise office blocks built just outside Paris in the 1970 s to prevent the city sky-line being mined by multi-storey buildings. Designed as a monumental arch of white marble, 105 metres high, it is intended to create an architectural link with the historic Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre. It will house an international communications centre.

At La Villette, in the north-east of Paris, 55ha of land and unused buildings, which were originally designed as the main

city slaughter-house, are being converted into a vast, neon-lit cultural and technology centre. It features a beautiful, mirror-clad spherical cinema measuring 36 metres in diameter,. with the world’s biggest hemispherical screen, which allows for breathtaking visual effects. Within a redundant railway station, the Gare d’Orsay, a fine example of nineteenth century architecture is being preserved with the creation of a museum unlike any other in the world. It will be dedicated almost exclusively to the art and civilisation of last century, when Europe made its great leap forward into the industrial age. While Mitterrand is taking care of the artistic and cultural sensibilities of the French, Chirac is trying to Improve living conditions for Parisians by rejuvenating the eastern part of the city.

Conceived in 1983, his scheme covers nearly half of the land surface of Paris and 48 per cent of the population. It aims to coordinate the work on nearly 300 building sites in the area. To implement the project, the city council has been acquiring land in run-down areas to make way for new apartment buildings, office blocks, and parks, as well as educational, social, and leisure facilities.

Chirac claims his plan will improve the quality of life in the district without causing unnecessary upheaval. His detractors argue, however, that it will leave many poor people homeless. The ambitious building programme that is now under way

will bring a big change to the face of Paris. The French have never been afraid to experiment with innovative architectural concepts. Last century it was the Eiffel Tower, which caused a huge scandal when it broke new ground for construction in steel. More recently, there were the Georges Pompidou centre, which sparked the trend for functional elements such as air ducts to be treated as architectural features, and the forward-looking design for Les Halles, right in the heart of the city, which replaced the famous fruit and vegetable market.

As always, the new projects have attracted their share of criticism. Some wonder if the harsh lines of buildings of glass and concrete will come to represent an age which really had nothing to say. Already, the new architectural styles have been dubbed “mitterrandisme,” after the President who openly acknowledges his preferences for geometric shapes. Mitterrand, a keen architecture buff, personally selected the glass pyramid design for the courtyard of the Louvre. “I find that Paris has given too small a place to modern architecture,” he said in an interview with “Le Nouvel Observateur.” “I have reasonably classical tastes and I am attracted by pure geometric shapes.” The Intense political rivalry between Mitterrand and Chirac has undoubtedly been a spur to the building programme in Paris. Chirac sees every stone laid as a building block in his candidacy

for the presidency. For Mitterrand, the motives might be slightly different, but they are no less powerful. Th6re are fears that the very same political rivalry could be the undoing of several of the State projects. The Conservatives have threatened to halt the construction of some if they come to power in the elections in March, as seems likely. Most people believe, however, that this is preelectoral rhetoric. All of the projects, except perhaps the new Opera de la Bastille, are so far advanced that they could not be stopped without an enormous loss of money. But does Paris really need these new edifices? Or, as some suggest, will they only serve as monuments to the memories of politicians? Defending the projects, town planners say that they are giving work to thousands and boosting French Industry. With improvements to the road and train network during the 1960 s and 19705, many of the practical problems facing Paris were resolved. The 1980 s became the time to add zest to the cultural life of the city. There are many who believe the changes are more than just cosmetic. For Paul Delouvrier, who was' in charge of urban development in Paris in the 19605, the new projects embody a move towards a new culture. Paris, as the show-case of France, must express "la force modems. ’’

“Paris has to be modern. It is part of Europe now,” he says.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860208.2.132.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, 8 February 1986, Page 19

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,199

Paris skyline gets 21st century look Press, 8 February 1986, Page 19

Paris skyline gets 21st century look Press, 8 February 1986, Page 19

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