One of architect Bernard Tschumi’s most significant Parisian developments is getting an iconic new addition called the HyperTent that will enhance its status as one of the best concentrations of significant architecture in the Western hemisphere.

Set upon the podium of one of the park’s 35 Folies, the parabolic new structure will serve as the ticketing booth for a program of circus arts set to take shape in the 19th arrondissement’s Parc de la Villette.  

The park is home to the Parisian Conservatorie as well as several other important cultural venues like the Cabaret Sauvage and Jean Nouvel-designed Philharmonie de Paris and annually attracts about 10 million visitors to its 55 hectares (136 acres) located to the north on the right bank of the River Seine. Tschumi was awarded the commission for the park’s master plan in 1982. Construction began the same year and was completed in 1987, leaving the city with one of the world’s best platforms for showcase architecture dotted with performance venues and steeped in architectural examples of the philosophical notion of deconstruction as developed by Tschumi with the guidance of legendary French theorist Jacques Derrida.

Featuring a polycarbonate facade screen-printed and designed by BTA, the HyperTent is composed of two basic elements, an architectural membrane and vertical envelope, that combine to form an organic intervention while doing its best not to interfere with any part of the historical Folie L4’s design as was intentioned by Tschumi. 

The installation was carried out by Irmarfer, which specializes in tent and pavilion construction, and was completed last year with a very constricting budget thanks to the brilliant effort of Tschumi and Sonia Grobelny, his co-designer. At just 25 square meters (269 square feet), HyperTent now officially represents the smallest project ever realized by the firm, according to a press briefing.