David Chipperfield Architects is celebrating the recent completion of their Morland Mixité Capitale project in Paris following six years of construction on a ‘Reinventing Paris’ scheme first announced by developer Emerige in 2016.
The firm’s Berlin office, in collaboration with CALQ, had been hard at work restoring and expanding the former Préfecture de Paris building into a new public attraction near Canal Saint-Martin.
Per the architects: “Two new building volumes facing the boulevard and the River Seine, which mediate between the scale of the existing and neighbouring buildings, contribute to the repair of the city. The volumes are raised above the ground to create a new public axis that provides a passage from the boulevard to the River Seine. Load-bearing, vaulted arcades characterize this passage at ground floor level and act as a counterpart to the stringent column grid of the existing ensemble. The complex accommodates a wide spectrum of usages: upscale and affordable housing, a hotel, a youth hostel, offices, retail, a gallery, a food market and a childcare facility. The two top floors house an inhabitable art installation, a bar and restaurant providing wide vistas over the French capital.”
The remade complex’s official opening will now take place on the 22nd of June. Its top floors now feature immersive art installations by Ólafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann courtesy of their collaborative Studio Other Spaces project, now in its eighth year of operation.
“I believe more than the design excellence of an individual building and its construction, architectural quality today is seen in the ways in which the building connects with its surroundings and enriches quality of life for all citizens, addressing a holistic approach to sustainability,” Chipperfield said in a project announcement. “In the case of Morland Mixité Capitale, the gesture towards the public realm and the creation of a semi-public space was an important aspect, as well as the overlapping of different activities.”
3 Comments
Hmm. I would've expected a bit more creativity from his project.
this doesn't look chipper at all. but i admit i do love the big white dots on the facade. would be a shame, if some six year old had to learn that glass is transparent the hard way.
i like the idea that the building now will have "overlapping activities". a truly novel and wondrous achievement.
What about this one? As for this, is it the sculptural concrete (almost Brutal?) form(s)? In both I think the facade/grid is the most Chipperfieldic...
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