Paris: The Latest Architecture and News

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archasm invites architects, students, engineers, designers, artists and philosophers to send in their entries for our competition

One of 23 teams selected in the Reinventer.paris competition, Jacques Ferrier Architecture, Chartier Dalix Architectes and SLA Architects have unveiled their winning proposal for the Ternes-Villers site, titled “Multi-Layered City.” Located at Boulevard Périphérique (Ring Road), the competition entry has a unique opportunity to transform Paris at a highly strategic spot.

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BPD Marignan and XTU Architects, in association with SNI Group and MU Architecture, have won the Réinventer.Paris competition for Paris Rive Gauche site M5A2. The winning project, called In Vivo, seeks to “[promote] social mix and openness between citizens and [integrate] nature into cities, to achieve a fairer, more sustainable, and resilient city,” through three buildings for humans, and one to raise earthworms for vermicomposting of inhabitants’ organic waste.

French department chain Galeries Lafayette has commissioned BIG to design its new flagship on Paris' historic Avenue des Champs-Élysées. BIG's first retail client, Galeries Lafayette hopes to position the project "as an upmarket department store for the 21st century" that will "endow the legendary boulevard with renewed cachet," according to a report on Business of Fashion.

Sited for 52 Champs-Élysées, the 7000-square-meter space will take its inspiration from the historic Art Deco building its housed in. As BIG described, they hope to enhance that space and respect the existing architecture, rather than radically transform it.

Parisian architect Clément Blanchet of cBA has revealed his shortlisted proposal for the Pershing site in the Réinventer.paris competition. The competition sought designs to revive 23 sites throughout the city of Paris, giving designers the power to rethink and reshape the way Parisians live, work and play. All 23 winning projects were announced last week, with a design by Sou Fujimoto selected for the Pershing plot.

The overall strategy of the Pershing area involves linking La Défense with the central business district of Greater Paris, utilizing the under-used space between Porte Maillot and the Porte des Ternes next to the Palais des Congrès de Paris. cBA’s proposal involves covering the Parisian ring, creating a metropolitan space next to the convention centre at Pershing Square. The proposal, titled “Re-Invention”, creates urbanity, using the project’s size to reveal and discover the layers of history present in the city. From this history, the city is reborn, creating a new “cultural center of production”.

“In “réinventer paris” I was thinking about reinventing something which has vanished,” said Clément Blanchet.

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Réinventer.paris has announced the 23 winners chosen to develop architectural projects in Paris, including designs by Sou Fujimoto, David Chipperfield, and DGT Architects. Réinventer.paris is an urban initiative launched to give designers the power to rethink and reshape the way that Parisians live, work, and play. Located on various sites chosen by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, each project successfully creates a sense of liveliness and embodies what the future of Paris might be. The call for submissions was answered with ideas about innovation, cutting edge-solutions to environmental problems, and intelligent design.

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Amsterdam-based SeARCH has won a competition in collaboration with Atelier Phileas and LA architectures to design a housing block in the new Paris Rive Gauche district. With each practice focused on one building, the project resulted in the combining of three interconnected high-rises united by a "green ribbon," "cut skyline" and a common expression of function projected onto the facades. Together, they offer 55 family apartments, 180 student flats, 75 middle income apartments, offices, a commercial area and underground public parking.

Museums, restaurants, shops, theaters. These are the types of spaces the public interact with on a regular basis in a city. But these spaces alone do not make a city - in fact, the vast majority of buildings house spaces that 99 percent of the population will never see. Yet a true city experience cannot exist without these buildings. What is the true value of private buildings to the tourist or the passer-by on the street? Is it simply a matter of aesthetic and identity? Could the same result be achieved with a streetwall made up of only facades? These are the implicit questions embedded in “Apparences,” the new video from Claire and Max of Menilmonde. The duo uses video editing and CGI to alter iconic Paris views, making the city of romance appear to be little more than the world’s largest movie set.

A city with the history and imagery of Paris cannot be mistaken for a Potemkin Village - the city functions still as one of the preeminent economic centers in the world. Yet its status as one of the world’s most visited cities and tales of its beauty and luxury often plant false visions of grandeur in visitors’ minds.

Netherlands-based Ittyblox has created yet another series of miniature 3D-printed buildings, this time featuring typical and iconic buildings and sites in Paris. Adding to their series of New York, London, and Chicago, among others, the new Parisian series follows suit as a 1:1000 scale model of customizable city blocks.

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Winner of the annual Super Skyscrapers competition, Tommaso Bernabò Silorata’s “Skyframe” is a proposal for a skyscraper in Paris featuring a hotel, business areas and rooftop pool. Despite its status as one of the world’s fastest changing cities, Paris has severe restrictions on its skyline to preserve its existing landscape. Skyscrapers are discouraged in its urban core, an issue addressed in this year’s Super Skyscraper competition. The first place winner, Skyframe, creates a void between the two towers, framing the Parisian skyline, and creating an ethereal swimming experience for occupants on the roof-level pool.