Archinect - News

‘Architecture Whispers’ Brings Intimate Architectural Discourse to Paris

2013-05-06T18:32:00-04:00

Paris has a new monthly event highlight: Architecture Whispers, a series of intimate multidisciplinary and cross-cultural conversations between emerging, established and visionary international architects and their colleagues in other disciplines. They take place in the Silencio Club located at 142 Rue Montmartre, an exclusive venue for writers, directors and musicians, established by American filmmaker/visual artist/musician David Lynch.

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.

Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ to Design Rugby Stadium in Paris

2013-02-14T14:00:00-05:00

The design proposal by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ for the new Grand Stade Rugby Stadium in Paris has emerged victoriously over two competing entries. The announcement was made by the Steering Committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) after several months of discussions and reviews.

Paris is like a wedge of Gruyère cheese

2012-11-01T11:48:00-04:00

Our aim is to examine the city's connection to its underground in a way no one has before: we will attempt to walk from the southern edge to the northern, using only catacombs, telecom tunnels, sewers and other hidden infrastructure. It is a 14-mile trek, every step illegal.

Will Hunt spent a few days and nights underneath Paris, as part of an expedition led by Steve Duncan, a photographer and urban historian from New York. The group discovered a parallel universe populated by: "cataphiles" - young, bohemian Parisians who use the tunnels as party venues, ossuaries and "An 800-year crawl".

OFIS Arhitekti Finish Basket Apartments in Paris

2012-10-09T19:17:00-04:00

Back in November 2008, we reported on Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti taking the first prize in the invited competition for a student apartment building in Paris' 19th district. The project has come together very nicely in the mean time, and we're excited to publish photos of the now completed Basket Apartments.

Compare the completed building with the competition renderings from 2008: OFIS Arhitekti Win Student Housing Competition in Paris

The Other Disney World: A Creepy, Empty Village

2012-07-26T17:23:00-04:00

Outside of Paris lies a “Truman Show like über-replica of a French village from the last century, which seems to have sprung up overnight.”

Ikea home away from home comes to Paris airport

2012-07-13T17:43:00-04:00

Ikea has opened a pop-up lounge at Paris's Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport for passengers to relax in between flights during the busy summer travel season. The lounge, situated in the airport's terminal 3, is open from July 13 to August 5, and includes various spaces laid out like bedrooms, a living room and a play area for children. Covering a total of 220 square meters, the Ikea space is open to all passengers.

DUNE Street Furniture System by FERPECT Collective

2012-07-06T17:56:00-04:00

French design collective FERPECT has shared with us their project DUNE, winner of Forme Publique 2011, the Biennale of Street Furniture Design at the futuristic business district La Défense near Paris. DUNE is being exhibited from March 28 until December 31 on the La Défense square.

High Tech Bus Stop in Paris by Patrick Jouin

2012-06-28T17:00:00-04:00

French designer Patrick Jouin has shared with us his latest project for client JCDecaux – a high tech bus stop (free Wifi anyone?) situated at the corner of Boulevard Henry IV and Place de la Bastille in Paris. Jouin has collaborated with JCDecaux on urban furniture since 2007, most notably for Vélib, the public bicycle sharing system in Paris.

Paris: "the bus stop of the future"

2012-06-20T14:41:00-04:00

Yes, it's still a bus shelter, but the idea is to make it both more useful and more of a social space. People may come here for a range of things other than catching the bus, so that social interaction and the life of the street intermix with waiting to produce a more vibrant, interesting, and safe environment.

Ball-Nogues Studio-designed Pavillon Speciale 2012 is inaugurated

2012-06-08T19:08:00-04:00

Following up from our news back in March this year about the selection of Ball-Nogues Studio as the architect for this year's Pavillon Speciale, we now bring you news and photos of the completed installation. Press release follows...

The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris this evening; with the presence of Benjamin Ball and students from the 6th Semester Atelier 3x of the Ecole Speciale, inaugurated the 2012 Ball-Noges studio ‘Pavillon Speciale’. This marks the 2nd edition of the summer architecture series that gives young emerging international architects the opportunity to build with students a temporary project in the heart of Paris. Curated and conceived by Matteo Cainer in the summer of 2010, the series is an ongoing program of innovative temporary structures built by emerging international architects under the age of 45. Once a year, students of the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture have the opportunity to build, along side the selected architect, a new experimental pavili...

LAN Architecture Completes 70° Sud Housing Project in Boulogne-Billancourt

2012-03-26T15:08:00-04:00

LAN Architecture recently completed 70° Sud, an apartment building in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris. The project emerged as the winner of a competition back in 2008.

Ball Nogues Studio Wins Pavillon Spéciale 2012 Competition in Paris

2012-03-19T18:41:00-04:00

The Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris today announced Ball-Nogues Studio from Los Angeles as the winner of the 2012 edition of the “Pavillon Spéciale” competition. Now in its 2nd edition, the Pavillon Spéciale consolidates its role as an annual spring architectural series that gives young emerging international architects the opportunity to build with students a temporary project in the heart of Paris.

Our very own Paul Petrunia, founder and publisher of Archinect and Bustler.net, had the honor to serve on the International Expert Committee for this year's pavilion competition.

Foster + Partners-designed Hermitage Plaza Granted Building Permit

2012-03-07T17:17:00-05:00

Foster + Partners announced today that Hermitage Plaza, the ambitious high-rise project in Paris, France, has been approved and was granted the Permis de Construire. The twisted twin towers – at 320 meters aiming to be Western Europe's tallest mixed-use towers – promise to create a new community to the east of La Défense, bringing the life of central Paris to the business district with a riverside park lined with cafes and restaurants.

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.

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.

BIG + OFF to Design New University Research Center in Paris

2011-11-21T18:09:00-05:00

Danish and French architects BIG & OFF, engineers Buro Happold, consultants Michel Forgue and environmental engineer Franck Boutte is the winning team to design the new 15,000 m2 research center for Sorbonne Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. The winning team was honored as the best design among proposals from MVRDV, Lipsky Rollet, Mario Cucinella and Peripherique.

Meet The Designer Behind David Lynch’s New Nightclub

2011-11-10T11:32:48-05:00

Located in the heart of historic Paris, Silencio is a 2,100-square-foot members-only nightclub that consists of a series of one-off rooms, plus a live stage with a reflective dance floor and 24-seat cinema. It grew, Navot says, out of a two-year process working with Lynch in Paris and in Los Angeles at the director’s home, with talks over the phone or on Skype.

“He has a natural director attitude,” Navot tells Co.Design. “Often, the design was guided in a way that was not always figurative–-it could have been a drawing, a rough sketch, an expression, or a feeling.”

Paris Opera | Charles Garnier | Architecture as Allegory

2011-10-02T15:20:20-04:00

A design competition opened in December 1860 with a month's deadline; it drew 171 submissions. The winning architect, Garnier, was a blacksmith's son who had studied at the École des Beaux Arts, taking its Grand Prix de Rome for architecture in 1848.

How A Parisian Artist Created This Stunning Optical Illusion

2011-07-07T11:45:10-04:00

This work of art looks like a giant grass sphere, but it's actually flat. This land art is an anamorphosis which is a distorted projection that comes to life when viewed at the proper angle. Stand to the side and you will see angular grass and dirt. Stand at the correct angle and the 3D image jumps out at you.

Zaha Hadid, une architecture at Mobile Art

2011-04-23T13:37:22-04:00

"Zaha Hadid, une architecture" will be the first exhibition held inside the Mobile Art pavilion since the installation of the pavilion in front of the Institut du monde arabe.

Architects Imagine a Utopian Paris in 2100, a Little Warmer and a Whole Lot Greener

2011-04-18T23:56:27-04:00

... a new exhibit is having fun imagining what [Paris] will look like in the year 2100: 2º C warmer, due to climate change, but also a whole lot greener, where pedestrians rule and every building has a roof garden.

The exhibit, which is the work of Yannick Gourvil and Cécile Leroux of the architecture firm Collectif et alors, is called "+2º: Paris s'invente!" Part of the City's Week of Sustainable Development (April 1-7), it was born of a simple idea: having acknowledged that the planet is getting warmer, how does Paris react? By tackling the problem head on, both by adjusting to a warmer climate and by taking measures to make sure things don't get any worse.

590ft controversial 'Triangle' tower to be built in Paris

2011-04-05T20:08:17-04:00

Paris town council has given the green light to a controversial "Triangle" tower rising 590ft above Paris which critics say is an "attack on the beauty of the French capital".