Parc de la Villette Designer: Bernard Tschumi Architects Location: Paris, France Client: Government of France Budget: 130 Million

Dates of Design: 1982-1983 (ongoing during construction) Dates of Construction: 1983-1995

Precedent:

Canal walkway and folly (source, Tschumi, 1987)

History, Social Setting

- Its was previously home to a complex of abattoirs - Before 1982, it was one of few remaining undeveloped sites in Paris - In 1982, a competition was held to design a park for the 21st century, looking for an architect to oversee - The purpose of the competition is to develop a complex program of cultural and entertainment facilities as well as obligatory gardens meant to employ cultural invention rather than natural recreation

Historical Map (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Site, Infrastructure

Major Roads

Rail

Site

Canal

Highway

Park specic roads

(Source, Tschumi, 1987)

Site

Major Roads

Map of site and major infrastructure

Design

- The approach taken by Tschumi was referred to as a search for an intermediary an abstract system to mediate between the site, the given constraints, and another concept beyond city or program (the mediator) - Based on the number of intended elements for the site and the many that were to be built after the landscape project was completed, the site needed to be open in the sense that substitutions and change had to be allowed by the design, it could not be planned specically and all at once. - Essentially, form had to be independent of function, and Tschumi sought to nd an organizing structure that could dene the parks identity without dening its functions or indicating any kind of hierarchy

Program Development (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Site plan including grid of Follies (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Design

- The park consists of three layers, points, lines and surfaces, which are superimposed on each other, creating a variety of spaces that remain ambiguous to allow many functional possibilities - The points, termed as Follies, are a series of bright red structures organized in a grid on the site. Each folly has its own separate function. Each folly is based on a 36 foot cube constructed of bars spaced 12 feet apart. The structure is then manipulated, altering the cube and adding some combination of one and two story cylindrical and triangular volumes with stairs and ramps

Renderings of follies (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Point, line, and plane axonometric (source, Tschumi, 1987) 6

Function

- The park includes many functions, gardens, sports elds, restaurants, a large science and industry museum, activity of music, a grand exhibition hall, and a rock concert hall

Rendering of walkway (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Site plan (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Thought processes

The interdependence of three superimposed structures...avoided all attempts to homogenize the park into a totality. It eliminated the presumption of a pre-established causality between program, architecture, and signication. The park [rejects] context, encouraging intertextuality and dispersion of meaning La Villette moves towards interpretive innity, for the eect of refusing xity is not insignicance, but semantic plurality. - He has written theories on deconstruction in lm, and has applied it to this project as well. He views lm as a segmented world in which each fragment maintains its own interdependence, thereby permitting a multiplicity of combinations.

Exploded folly (source, Tschumi, 1987)

Site, application and analysis

Plan of Gallerie de la Villette (source, Tschumi, 1987)

- The road implemented into the park introduces a connection between existing metro stops and large roads -The road also provides a structuring axis for the park itself, a line within the parks design parameters as well - The park is fairly ground breaking in the requirements of the park for the competition and naturally the winning entry followed suit; Tschumi designed on the park within his deconstructivist mind set, deriving a functionally loose space that was open yet dened, neutral yet lled with conict. - The problem is its lack of context, which Tschumi believed to be necessary for the sake of the project. Apart from the road, the park is self contained and blocked o by major roads, allowing itself to be divided from its surroundings. This includes a series of sports elds located very close by, a would-be excellent complement to the park.

Aerial photo of park (source, Google maps, 2008)

Park photography (source, Gleiniger, 1997)

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