gogoparis.com » >architecture

L’Opera restaurant at the Palais Garnier

kvdb — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:31:13 +0000

The Palais Garnier’s first ever restaurant L’Opéra has just opened its doors. Designed by goth Paris architect Odile Decq (check out this interview with Thierry Ardisson from 1990), the gastronomic restaurant is decorated in the architect’s favourite colour red, with organic forms and stuctures that meld with the architecture of the elaborate 19th-century building. Michelin-starred chef Christophe Aribert, at the helm of the Grand Hôtel d’Uriage, has designed the menu. Open daily for dinner, expect to pay about 80€ per head, plus wine.
L’Opéra, Place Jacques Rouché, 9th. +33(0)1 42 68 86 80. www.opera-restaurant.fr

Bourrellec Brothers for Versailles

kvdb — Mon, 09 May 2011 09:44:35 +0000

Sibling design duo Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec have won the competition to work on ‘enhancing’ Versailles’ extraordinary Gabriel staircase, which leads to the royal apartments. One of the most impressive features of the Versailles palace, the double stone staircase was designed by royal architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel and built in 1772, but was left uncompleted until 1985. The project to install contemporary works on this site was originally given to Daniel Buren, before a change of direction via the creation of a design competition. The Bourroullec brothers should reveal their project for the site shortly. (And from 7 Oct, the Centre Pompidou-Metz will present the first major retrospective in France dedicated to their elegant work.)
www.bouroullec.com/

Zaha Hadid at the Institut du Monde Arabe

kvdb — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:23:32 +0000

Chanel’s Mobile Art Container, a travelling exhibition pavilion created for Chanel, came to rest on the square in front of Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe earlier this year, and on Friday an exhibition dedicated to the architect that designed the structure will open within it. ‘Zaha Hadid, Une Architecture’ is the first exhibition in France dedicated to the headline-grabbing, Pritzker-prize-winning, London starchitect, and allows the visitor to experience her work on three different levels, by discovering the Mobile Art pavilion (building), experiencing the exhibition design (scenography) and seeing the international work of the practice (exhibits). The exhibition explores a series of research agendas conducted by Zaha Hadid Architects in recent years; different media is used to show the work: models, prototypes, sculptures, paintings and projections. ‘I think through our architecture, we can give people a glimpse of another world, and enthuse them, make them excited about ideas. Our architecture is intuitive, radical, international and dynamic. We are concerned with constructing buildings that evoke original experiences, a kind of strangeness and newness that is comparable to the experience of going to a new country. The Mobile Art pavilion follows these principles of inspiration’ says Hadid.
Fri 29 Apr-Sun 30 Oct.
Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 rue des Fossés-St-Bernard, 5th. www.imarabe.org

Charlotte Perriand at the Petit Palais

kvdb — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:30:22 +0000

One of the most important early modernists, French furniture designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) was a member of Le Corbusier’s studio. This exhibition, opening soon at the Petit Palais, emphasises the importance of photography in her work; both for her preliminary studies, it provided her with inspiration for her experiments with forms, materials and spatial arrangements, but also as an integral part of her furniture and as a monumental component for interior design (the latter took the form of photomontages). The exhibition also particularly emphasises her passion for objects found in the course of her walks; in their distancing of the rationalist spirit of the 1920s, these brought greater flexibility and formal freedom to her work. The show presents 380 photos and 70 items of furniture, including a suite that once belonged to Perriand herself, and offers a fresh look at Perriand’s work and the opportunity to rediscover an artist alert to her natural and social setting, gifted with a keen eye for the world around her and always ready to stand up for her convictions as a free creative spirit.
Thu 7 Apr-Sun 18 Sep.
10am-6pm (8pm Thu). Closed Mon. 8€
Petit Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 8th. www.petitpalais.paris.fr

Charlotte Perriand in the mountains, c. 1930 ©AChP

PARIS, AVANT-APRES: 1860-2010

kvdb — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:57:43 +0000

Haussmann this, Haussmann that… If you want to see what Paris looked like before 1850, when Napoleon III and his famous prefect replaced 120,000 squalid flats with 320,000 spanking new apartments, and installed 200 kilometres of new roads, plus pavements and urban furniture including water fountains and street lights, 600,000 trees, 600 kilometres of new sewers…. This exhibition, opening tomorrow, compares photos dating from 1858-1878 and taken by Charles Marville, commissioned by Napoleon III to record the changes, with images of the same place taken today. The images come from a new book published by Les Editions du Mécène, PARIS, Avant/Après – 19e siècle et 21e siècle.
Until 24 Feb.
Académie d’Architecture, 9, place des Vosges, 4th. http://www.aa.archi.fr/

Rue Réaumur c. 1860 © Éd. du Mécène

Rue Réaumur, 2010

Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed

kvdb — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:17:01 +0000

Editor-in-chief of weighty local fashion quarterly Citizen K, Frédéric Chaubin has been publishing his own photos of what he calls the ‘fourth age of Soviet architecture’ for a decade. Taschen is publishing 90 of these pictures in a new monograph that reveals an unexpected rebirth of imagination in architecture in the former URSS, an unknown burgeoning that took place from 1970 until 1990. Contrary to the 1920s and 1950s, no “school” or main trend emerges here. These buildings represent a chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system. Their diversity announced the end of the Soviet Union.
On sale from Feb. 39.99€, www.taschen.com/

The new Les Halles

kvdb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:46:07 +0000

One of the city’s major architectural projects, the Les Halles overhaul now has its own dedicated website, where you can watch an upbeat 4-minute video taking you through the new design, here. Paris’ only real shopping mall and central transport hub, built in the late 70s, Les Halles is to be renewed over the next few years; the massive and controversial 810 000 000€ project will be overseen by two architectural teams headed by David Mangin (Seura) and by Patrick Berger & Jacques Anziutti.
www.parisleshalles.fr

Chanel’s Mobile Art container donated to the Institut du Monde Arabe

kvdb — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:06:35 +0000

Chanel is to donate the exhibition pavilion designed by the Pritzker prize winning, London architect Zaha Hadid, to Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe (an emblematic building designed by another contemporary starchitect, Jean Nouvel). The Mobile Art container showcased artworks by contemporary artists inspired by Chanel’s iconic bag in 2008 and was meant to tour the world but stopped short after Hong Kong and New York, when the Financial Crisis hit. The pavilion will be installed in front of the Institut du Monde Arabe early next year, and is to host exhibitions in line with the centre’s policy of showcasing talent from Arab countries.
Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 rue des Fossés-St-Bernard, 5th. www.imarabe.org

Jean Nouvel designs new H&M flagship

kvdb — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:17:28 +0000

One of France’s most important contemporary architects has designed the immense (2,800m2) new H&M flagship, the brand’s 12th store for Paris, opening on the Champs Elysées on 6 Oct. Apparently the facade of the new store will be covered with video screens and lights, and inside will have an industrial vibe.

‘Perspectives’ at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton

kvdb — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:50:41 +0000

For the first time, the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton is concentrating on just two artists: gothic Paris-based architect Odile Decq, who has been in the press lately for her extension of Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is head to head with artist Camille Henrot, pre-selected for this year’s Marcel Duchamp contemporary art prize. Sixteen works, primarily new works, offer an attempt to understand space and the world by means of a twofold view. Fascinated by the horizon, Odile Decq has designed three installations combining steel, metal or glass, which all present a challenge to our perception. Through video, sculpture, drawing, engraving, photography, weaving, Camille Henrot explores travel and its misunderstandings, the impossible comprehension of the other. Odile Decq transforms the exhibition into a ship or a plane and Camille Henrot into a sort of museum of man.
Until 5 Sep.
www.louisvuitton.com/espaceculturel