Versailles

It's big, ostentatious, and the gardens really do look like they extend to infinity. One must really love themselves to be king.

Photo by Paulis Austrins

The city of Versailles was like a quieter, smaller version of Paris. We met up with one of my coworkers who lives in Versailles for some cake and tea before heading home. 

Corbusier - Villa Savoye

This is the last of my Corbusier pilgrimage, at least for now. It's the first house by Corbusier that I've been to. There are many Corb houses in Paris, but all of those seem difficult to visit, requiring reservation or only open on weekdays. We made the trip out to Poissy on the Friday of my Birthday

This house is a perfect example of Corbusier's 5 principles of modern architecture. It is also a good example of the house as a 'machine for living'. 

There was natural light which filtered through all the spaces of the house, aided by the overlapping of spaces and levels, characteristic of Corbusier. Talking about the manipulation of light sometimes seems cliche and overused, but the experience of it when well done is always still powerful.

It's also impressive to think about these sort of places being designed mainly in plan, section, and elevation. The ability to think about complex 3d space through 2D drawing is somewhat lost today; it is instead being replaced by ever more complex 3D thinking in 3D.

Ronchamp [Notre Dame du Haut] - Corbusier + Renzo Piano

We got off at a train station that consisted of a small shelter that looked like it could have been for just a bus and a stairway to cross the tracks. Upon looking for lunch, we realized that all the restaurants are closed for lunch in Ronchamp (1-3p... who would have thought?), so we 'fasted' and made the pilgrimage up to the chapel on empty stomachs. 

The chapel did not disappoint. The approach to the building starts at a small stair which gives the 'magazine view'of the building. My first thought that it looked just like the photos, but being at the site helps bring out a lot of the smaller details and how all the parts relate. There is a play between interior and exterior through the thick wall and a lot of texture that is not understood in photos.

Large mural covered doors pivot on a central pin to open into the building.

We were lucky enough to see these gutters in operation, as it rained during our visit; but my camera went into hiding from fear of rain.

The roof is held above the walls with a small reveal. Although massive, from the inside of the building, the roof floats above the walls.

From a nearby pyramid, memorializing the french who died for their country in 1944, one can get a view of the tops of the chapels protruding above the heavy roof mass. 

Each of the tunnel-like window openings are expressive on the exterior and interior. This one in particular, holds a statue which is seen as a backdrop for the altar inside as well as for the exterior altar space.

  

Sitting fairly neglected next to the chapel is another Corbusier designed building, which is made to disappear in the landscape when viewed from the chapel.

A new addition to the mix is the welcome center and monastery by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. While I wasn't too impressed by the approach to this building from the exterior, as Renzo interns we had the privilege of getting a tour by one of the sisters through the monastery, and by the end we were all pleasantly surprised by the addition. As with all of Renzo's work, the craft, material, and detail of the building are superb. 

The project is buried into the hill facing away from the chapel so that it disappears from view while also giving the monastery amazing views over the countryside. Light-wells for the small offices buried in the hill, provided light and natural ventilation, and actually made for quite cozy rooms. There was not the sense of being underground, and most of us preferred this to the super lit rooms on the exterior face of the building. 

We were all amazed by the small prayer room at the end of our visit. After the simple straight forms of the rest of the building, it was the first (only?) curve we saw in the building, reflecting light into the space from a hidden skylight just beyond. The enclosure of the space is made up of a series of broken up walls rather than one closed surface, and the chairs in the room are custom designed by Vitra/Piano just for this project, as the sisters were looking for simple chairs which could be sat in for long periods of time.

In the building overall there was a lot of care put into what one sees as one travels through building. None of the circulation leads to flat blank walls, and the length of the long bar buildings shifts and is broken up by light, as the building follows the curve of the hill. This stair is one example of circulation providing a smooth transition between spaces.

 Very importantly, the sisters seem very pleased with their new space and with their experience with Renzo.

Corbusier: Maison du Brésil, Fondation Suisse

There's an international school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, where Corbusier has two buildings. The campus itself was split into two parts, one park-like area filled with sports fields, courts, and green lawn; and the other filled with buildins of many styles, reflecting the international population of the school. The strangest was a Mediterranean style building with a Chinese tile roof tacked on, as if that's all it takes to make a building Chinese. 

Corb's buildings are for the Brazil and Swiss dorms at the Eastern end of the campus. Lucio Costa and Corbusier collaborated on the Maison du Brésil, with Corbusier gradually taking over. I had not done any research beforehand, but the building was immediately recognizable. The composition is playful, with colors highlighting certain openings of the building; there is a skillful use of poured in place concrete with window openings placed in ways which break up the mass and talk about the scale of inhabitation; the form of the building is diverse with details in concrete (tables, ledges, benches) incorporated into the design; and the whole composition sits lightly on the ground. 

The ceiling in the lobby slopes down towards the entrance. Not being very tall, this was one of the few spaces I've been in where I've been made conscious of the space above my head. It created a nice feeling of expansion when walking into the building.

Fondation Suisse (below) is more reserved from the exterior, but Corbusier's play with curved walls, massing lifted from the ground, light, and concrete construction are still evident. It's worth going to the building's website to look at the play of colors that become evident at night: http://www.fondationsuisse.fr/

La Defense

Hey look, it's the other side of Paris. Since most of Paris has been frozen into a moment of history architecturally, La Defense is where all the new buildings go. What can i say... bigger than I expected, biggest business district in Europe. It is also possibly the most spacious developed urban area I've ever been to. It felt very open, like a city/plaza wrapped into one. 

Most of the people here that I've mentioned La Defense to scoff at it as a boring place not worth visiting. I'd say it's worth visiting, if only just to understand the way Paris has been developing as a whole and not just the quaint romantic side of things. It's also worth checking out the concrete domed shopping center, the largest thin shell concrete structure in the world. (Also makes for the largest shopping center in Europe).

[These photos are of the Grande Arche on the main access of La Defense which lines up with the Champs Elysees historical access of Paris.]

Sainte Chapelle

I found out about this church on a visit to a nearby exhibit of some of Renzo Piano Building Workshop's work at the Palais de Justice. When passing by the church, one of my coworkers burst out into praises for the building, saying that we must absolutely all visit it. This endorsement was early on in my time here and was one of my first introductions to the very dramatic way French often express things. Of course, things might be less dramatic in french as heard by french speakers; but in direct translation to english, I've heard and received compliments around the office for simple things being 'perfect' 'magnificent' 'beautiful' 'incredible', words that would be used much more sparingly in the English language. I went with high expectations. 

The chapel was impressive. It was quite unlike any of the other European chapels I've visited. The space felt like a being in a jewel filled with light; all of the walls between the structural columns were made up of stained glass windows detailing out all of the stories of the bible from start to end.

Deux Parcs de Paris (Buttes Chaumont et Parc de la Vilette)

These are the two parks of Paris which were introduced to me via architecture school. They are both located in the North Eastern part of Paris. 

Buttes Chaumont was created as a garden showcase by Napolean III. It is an artificially formed landscape on the site of an old quarry. Amazingly, many of the large landscape features, including the large cliff and caves are man-made from concrete. The park was originally a very controlled landscape which had political significance by directing the way visitors would look back on the city from the park. It later became overgrown, making it the most natural looking park in Paris despite it's artificial beginnings. 

An alternative description by Temba is that the park is a Parisian couples' perfect spot for a first date. (Meet Temba. He's one of the other interns.)

La Vilette (below) strives not to be the traditional park. Rather than the structured landscape of Buttes Chaumont, it tries to be a stage for human interaction, encouraging play and activity. Included in the park are performance venues, museums, and enormous grass lawns where no activity is defined, except potential interaction with a series of follies. The park is based on the deconstructive principles of Derrida and designed by Tschumi. There are a set of gardens created by different designers. Below are the garden of mirrors and the garden of winds and hills.

(After these two photos were taken, I was warned by a lady walking her dog to put my camera away, because of there being thieves in the park. While I love the idea of this park, this warning was not encouraging, and neither was watching groups of drunk teenage boys pissing on walls midday.)

La Vilette was one of the most racially diverse places I've seen in Paris, probably due to it's location. Each group seemed to be doing it's own thing. Racially diverse but not racially mixed, unsurprisingly. Overall the whole environment reminded me of high school. Nice things, mean things, low class, high class, good potential for fun, but also potential for things to go wrong. Despite all this, I got the sense that the park would have been different if we had been visiting on a weekend, when more of the working class population of Paris could come out too.