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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
The Musée du Louvre welcomed only 2.8 million visitors last year, less than 30% of its pre-Covid record levels when it received around ten million. The Louvre has not seen such low figures since 1986, before the opening of the glass pyramid and the Grand Louvre project which steadily boosted attendance over the past four decades. — The Art Newspaper
This level of attendance is nearly the same as the previous year, however French museums were closed for one month less in 2021 than in 2020. According to an official source at the culture ministry, general attendance at French museums dropped by 60-70% for the second year compared to pre-covid... View full entry
French start-up EasyMile is to be the first transport provider to run a fully autonomous vehicle on a public road in Europe. The company has been authorised to run a driverless bus at the Oncopole medical campus in Toulouse, in partnership with French engineer Alstom. — Global Construction Review
The bus will operate at “Level 4,” meaning no human attendant will be on board. The authorization was granted by France’s Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Ecological Transition, on advice of the Minister of the Interior and local authorities. The bus arrives ahead of the implementation... View full entry
Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA) has begun construction on a much-needed cathedral addition that will add a contemporary feel in "harmonious dialogue" with a 12th-century structure set on the edge of the historic Loire Valley in France. The cathedral is host to several important polychromatic... View full entry
Two and a half years after a fire ravaged the centuries-old Cathedral of Notre-Dame in the heart of Paris, the building has been secured enough to start the rebuilding process, which is expected to be completed in 2024, according to the French authorities. — The New York Times
The news was announced last weekend in a statement on Facebook by Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, the public body responsible for the conservation and restoration of the 850-year-old cathedral. This milestone and expected timeline meets French President Emmanuel Macron’s five-year plan to... View full entry
Construction of MVRDV’s Ilot Queyries, a courtyard apartment building located in the French port city of Bordeaux, has been completed. The project is situated across from the city’s UNESCO World Heritage historic center. It is the largest building in a development of four buildings... View full entry
“While the film’s cast is a long list of recognizable names (Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright) one of its biggest stars is the city, showcased in a tour that makes up one of the segments. Rather than creating multiple town exteriors on a backlot, the filmmakers found a real French town, Angoulême, and used it as the movie’s beating heart, dressing it up or down as needed.” — The New York Times
Wes Anderson and his crew for "The French Dispatch" transformed the city of 42,000 into 125 different individual sets including a former knitting factory, which it was able to successfully reshape into a multipurpose studio space complete with a carpentry mill and three stages. Anderson’s... View full entry
Looking to spend time and some pretty serious cash in Europe this summer? Longing to live the lavish life of a noble? Now you have the opportunity to do it at one of the most historic buildings in France after the Palace Versailles’ recent announcement that it will begin accepting visitors at a... View full entry
Frank Gehry’s latest cultural project has finally opened in Arles, leaving Southern France with a shimmering tribute that the famed architect says is inspired by its most famous resident. The LUMA Tower is opening today on the foundation’s 27-acre campus after a 13-year planning effort... View full entry
Frank Gehry's team is wrapping up another high-profile project this year: after the $1-billion mixed-use development The Grand topped out in Downtown Los Angeles this week (aiming for completion in late 2021), the LUMA Arles art complex in the south of France just announced its intention to open... View full entry
