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Paris’ PietriArchitectes has shared images of their new 15-unit social housing development in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers. Completed towards the end of last year, 36 Ferragus is the key cog in a requalification operation for the city’s center. Currently, about two-thirds of... View full entry
A recently-inaugurated renovation project for Michelin’s corporate headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France, has given a new identity to the 130-year-old legacy brand that was “in need of a new setting to project into the future,” according to President Florent Menegaux. The project was... View full entry
The current cleaning phase involves the application of a latex paste to the interior stonework. After a few days, the latex can be peeled off, bringing with it accumulated dust and dirt. Speaking to The Times in September Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of French national historic monuments, said that once completed the cathedral would be “luminous”. — The Art Newspaper
The peel-off material is similar to the Arte Mundit product that was used controversially in a restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London 20 years ago, although The Art Newspaper reported it does not include the EDTA or harmful ammonia that is often mixed in with latex as a... View full entry
In France, solar just got a huge boost from new legislation approved through the Senate this week that requires all parking lots with spaces for at least 80 vehicles – both existing and new – be covered by solar panels. — electrek
Starting on July 1, 2023, parking lots that have between 80 and 400 spaces will have five years to comply with the new measures. Those with more than 400 spaces will need to comply within three years, with at least half of the surface area of the parking lot needing to be covered in solar... View full entry
MVRDV has shared details on its just-completed Gaîté Montparnasse block renovation in the French capital. The project transformed Pierre Dufau’s once iconic 1974 Ilôt Vandamme design into a more welcoming mixed-use site just south of the Tour Montparnasse facing Avenue du Maine. “This piece... View full entry
3XN has officially debuted its first-ever French design just west of Paris’ La Défense business district in Nanterre. Featuring a program that combines a traditional office and hotel accommodation through two separate volumes, joined along an east-west axis, that offer views of La Défense’s... View full entry
MVRDV has completed work on Ascension Paysagère, a residential complex in Rennes, France which takes inspiration from “geological formations.” Designed in collaboration with co-architects ALL, the project delivers 138 homes within the 12-story, 113,000-square-foot scheme, including 37 social... View full entry
A splashy collaboration between AMO (the research arm of OMA) and the French fashion house Jacquemus is making the scene in Paris and London this season thanks to the dynamic duo of OMA partner Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri. Located inside the iconic Parisian department store Galeries... View full entry
French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to reopen Notre-Dame in time for Paris’ turn as host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games still appears to be on track after France’s Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak said her office was “quite confident” in the reconstruction’s... View full entry
Renée Gailhoustet has been named the winner of this year’s Royal Academy of Arts Architecture Prize in recognition of her work surrounding urban planning and social housing in her native country of France. The jury commended Gailhoustet for her “strong social commitment that brings... View full entry
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... View full entry
France’s Château La Coste will make history this summer with the realization of one of Oscar Niemeyer’s last architectural drawings. Set idyllically amongst the Château’s 500-acre estate in one of the country’s most significant wine regions, the latest in a series of pavilions will... View full entry
A pre-construction archaeology dig meant to prepare a critical segment of the reconstructed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has led to the discovery of a lead sarcophagus and several small tombs according to an announcement from the French Ministry of Culture. The discovery was unearthed directly... View full entry
The Eiffel Tower grew by six meters (nearly 20 feet) on Tuesday after engineers hoisted a new communications antenna at the very top of France’s most iconic landmark. With the new antenna, the Eiffel Tower grew from 324 meters (1,063 feet) tall to 330 meters (1,083 feet). — ABC News
The Iron Lady’s first such extension was installed in 1957 and followed in 2000 by the installation of a UHF display, which brought the official height to the just-surmounted total of 324 meters (1,063 feet). Tuesday’s addition of the new DAB+ antenna now brings the structure even further away... View full entry
By 2025, commuters near the Paris suburb of Creteil should have a new way to get to work: the French capital’s first-ever public transit gondola. The new aerial tramway, which cleared its pre-construction feasibility studies this week, will be called Cable A, and will link several outlying but populous neighborhoods in Paris’ southeastern suburbs to the terminus of Metro line 8. — Bloomberg CityLab
Cable A will travel a distance of 2.8 miles with five stations along its route. It was first proposed in 2008 as a cheaper and more practical alternative to conventional transit lines, which would require extensive engineering at the site. The gondola only needs space for the pillars that... View full entry
