Archinect - News

Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse rooftop gym transformed into art space

2013-04-15T18:36:00-04:00

French designer Ora-Ïto is converting the famous Marseille roof terrace into a haven for contemporary art

The NY Times on French new-wave architects

2013-04-02T18:16:00-04:00

But for lovers of contemporary architecture, Paris can be a surprisingly rich place. The latest crop of French architects is producing some of the best new work the city has seen. They are an eclectic group comfortable taking large risks while still melding the work into an august context.

Louvre-Lens: helping a mining town shed its image

2012-12-05T15:01:00-05:00

The €150m satellite of Paris's Louvre museum shimmers like an apparition on the raised plane of the former coalmine, looking down over streets of pitch-roofed miners' houses, dotted with the occasional chip shop. The building is formed from a series of long, low-slung walls that fade in and out of view as the changing light dances over its surface – or as clouds of drizzle engulf it entirely in the wintry gloom.

18th-Century French Chateau Razed 'By Mistake'

2012-12-05T11:45:00-05:00

The mayor's office in Yvrac said Wednesday that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 13,000-square-meter (140,000-square-foot) manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up. "The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy," said former owner Juliette Marmie. "The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such a mistake?"

Via rfuller in the Forum: Chateau de Bellevue destroyed by idiots.

MVRDV’s Transformation of Disused Dijon Mustard Laboratory Completed

2012-07-13T14:58:00-04:00

Rotterdam's MVRDV has completed the transformation of a disused mustard laboratory in Dijon, France (previously on Bustler) into an innovative call center with an education center, incubator and social program.

Previously in the Archinect News: MVRDV to Transform Dijon Mustard Lab into Call Center

Can US communities learn from this European suburban retrofit?

2012-02-22T15:15:59-05:00

In 2008, the substantially updated town center of Plessis-Robinson, a suburb of Paris, was named “the best urban neighborhood built in the last 25 years” by the European Architecture Foundation. A composite of six connected districts ranging in size from 5.6 to 59 acres, the revitalization comprises public buildings, retail, market-rate and subsidized affordable housing, parks, schools, gardens, sports facilities, and a hospital. Construction was begun in 1990 and took a decade to complete.

Corbu's Marseille's Cité Radieuse damaged by fire

2012-02-10T11:22:00-05:00

One of France's most important landmarks of modernist architecture, La Cité Radieuse housing estate in Marseille, built by the architect Le Corbusier, has been damaged by fire. Fire services fought for over 12 hours to put out a blaze that began on Thursday afternoon in a first floor flat in the nine-storey concrete complex which is protected by special heritage status in France.

The New French Hacker-Artist Underground

2012-02-02T18:00:00-05:00

Through meticulous infiltration, UX members have carried out shocking acts of cultural preservation and repair, with an ethos of “restoring those invisible parts of our patrimony that the government has abandoned or doesn’t have the means to maintain.” The group claims to have conducted 15 such covert restorations, often in centuries-old spaces, all over Paris.

Ginger Group Unveils Plan to Transform the Eiffel Tower Into a Gigantic Tree

2011-12-01T14:59:31-05:00

A group of consultants in Paris has hatched a plan to turn the Eiffel Tower into a giant tree by covering it with 600,000 plants. Their dream is to literally plant the 324 meter tall aesthetic symbol of Paris with 12 tons of rubber tubing, and gradually add bags planted with greenery all over.

Nursery in Sarreguemines, France

2011-10-14T16:06:02-04:00

French architects Paul Le Quernec and Michel Grasso have shared with us photos of their recently completed collaboration, a nursery in Sarreguemines, France. The design is based on the concept of a body cell with its nucleus as the core and surrounding elements that are being confined by the cell membrane.

Exhibition Sitio of Santiago Borja - Villa Savoye of Le Corbusier, Poissy (France)

2011-07-25T20:03:00-04:00

The exhibition Sitio is an intervention of the artist Santiago Borja designed for the Savoye Villachef-d’œuvre of Le Corbusier - based on the statute of icon out of the time and deterritorialized ofthe Villa. It appears a such floating object in space and time, fighting against the possibility ofconstituting only one remarkable enclosure but vacuum; a ’’machine à habiter’’ on diverted. TheSpanish term Sitio - which means ''site' '- insists on the concept of place in the anthropologicalmeaning : a place symbolically given. It also implies, as Roland Barthes defines it in Le Neutre(1978), an ideal place, a place of foundation or an esoteric place where we feel good. In thisdirection, Sitio proposes a multiple reading of the various cultural phenomena which developedaround the Villa, a such kind of plea for what one could name ’’anachronistic contemporaneity’’.

While being based on the thesis that Adolf Max Vogt develops in Le Corbusier le bon sauvage(2003), explaining why Le C...

Gehry's Luna Park Plan Put on Ice

2011-07-25T15:55:16-04:00

Frank Gehry’s vision for a series of his signature folded towers placed in the heart of the historic Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France will have to wait – as the project has just been put on hold. The French National Commission for Historical Sites and Monument has rejected two of the five necessary permits required for the Luna Park campus development to commence.

OMA to Design Parc des Expositions in Toulouse

2011-07-08T18:48:00-04:00

OMA has won the competition to design the new Parc des Expositions (PEX) in the innovation zone of Toulouse, in southern France. PEX is conceived as a new gateway to the city and will host exhibitions, conferences, and concerts.

Cité du Surf et de l’Océan by Steven Holl

2011-05-21T12:21:00-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

'Cité de l'océan et du surf', a project in Biarritz, France by Steven Holl, and Brazilian artist Solange Fabião, opens in june 2011. The museum intends to raise awareness of oceanic issues and scientific aspects of the surf and sea. The design revolves around a central plaza that Steven Holl describes as 'open to sky and sea, the horizon in the distance.'

A concave "under the sky" shape creates a central gathering plaza, open to sky and sea, with the horizon in the distance. The convex structural ceiling forms the "under the sea" exhibition spaces. This concept generates a unique profile and form for the building, and through its insertion and efficient site utilization, the project integrates seamlessly into the surrounding landscape.

Shaped like a giant wave, the museum is composed of delicate gl...

MVRDV to Transform Dijon Mustard Lab into Call Center

2011-05-02T13:50:00-04:00

The French city of Dijon and Teletech International have chosen Rotterdam architects MVRDV to transform a disused Dijon Mustard laboratory completed in 2004 into an innovative call center with an education center, incubator and social program. Completion of the 6,000m2 refurbishment is planned for 2012.