MAISON CARRÉ BY ALVAR AALTO Maison Carré in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France, is a private house by Alvar Aalto which is to a major extent stamped by the owner being an art collector: one could say that it is at the same time a private palais and a gallery. — Published 2011.0831
	POMPIDOU-METZ BY SHIGERU BAN Shigeru Ban has recently been spending almost three-quarters of his time outside Japan, and one main reason for this pattern is the fact that he was building the Centre Pompidou-Metz, an ambitious extension that the Parisian institution has undertaken in the eastern French city of Metz. — Published 2011.0622
	GARDEN MEANING Let us put an end to the endless disputes between those who think that "anything goes" (what the French call bouillon de culture: a sort of "culture medium" or "broth") and those who are unconditional supporters of a single, unique "good taste." — Published 2011.0413
	HOUSING ON RUE DES VIGNOLES Eden Bio can be difficult to find. One might think it would be hard to conceal almost 100 new public housing units in this part of Paris's 20th arrondissement, but local architect Édouard François has managed to do so, inserting rows of low-rise apartments, duplexes, and small houses into the middle of a city block while presenting a minimal, modest face to the street on three sides. — Published 2010.0317
	WORKS OF JEAN NOUVEL Buildings and Projects by Jean Nouvel, listed chronologically: Plateau Beaubourg, at Paris, France, 1971. — Published 2008.0402
	LES ARCHIVES DÉPARTEMENTALES There is something inherently abstract about the government archive. Storage of old records can too easily be seen as a utility function free of aesthetic aspiration. Compared to a classic library program, an archive might be seen as exaggerating the stacks while minimizing the interacting human element. In some archives this tendency leads to the place where the technical function of storage obliterates the impulse for architecture. — Published 2008.0319
	TO CROSS THE SEINE A new pedestrian bridge, "Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir," now undulates across the Seine in Paris. It is the creation of Feichtinger Architectes with consulting engineers RFR, where I work, and Sepia. — Published 2006.1004
	FIRE STATION IN TOULOUSE French architect Pierre Debeaux was known as an uncompromising artist, a rigorous geometer, and a passionate master builder. The Jacques Vion Firehouse in the city of Toulouse remains unquestionably his major work, the epitome of his late mature style. — Published 2005.0921
	PARIS AIR TERMINAL COLLAPSE REPORT On May 23, 2004, a portion of roof at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris collapsed, killing four travelers and injuring three more. Ten months later, an investigation of the innovative vault construction has resulted in a report citing probable causes. — Published 2005.0427
	TALKING SHEDS Architecture's communicative function was disregarded throughout the first half of the twentieth century. During the 1950s, Robert Venturi and I independently developed a strong interest in it. In the mid 1960s, we looked for a site where we could study architectural communication somewhat separately from architecture's other functions and away from complex urban patterns that would make the communication systems less clear. We found it in the Nevada desert on the Las Vegas strip. — Published 2005.0406

Architecture Design and Building in France page: 01 | 02 | [next]