BIG RED

Parc de la Villette

Bernard Tschumi

(written by: Jennifer Lenn)

        Like any work of art, architecture is a tangible statement communicating an artist's message or idea. The work, in turn, develops its own character defined by its architectural elements. In many instances projects are heavily or completely influenced by its location, people, circulation and, most importantly, the context. In my last blog i wrote about Axel Schultes'  response to the new German government on the Spree river. He used Spreebogenpark as a way to forever inscribe Germany's new identity on the banks of the Spree river. One thousand kilometers away in Paris, France, Bernard Tschumi breaks away from the tradition of referencing context and makes a bold red statement with his design for Parc de la Villette. Tschumi's goal for this park is clearly defined by its deep red structure and its obtrusively enormous scale. The 135 acre park sits on an abandoned plot of land previously used for the French national wholesale meat market and slaughterhouse on  the Canal de l' Ourcq. Rather than recognizing the history of the site or the landscape of the site, Tschumi proposed a park that is completely man made and controlled lacking any organic elements or forms and with a complete disregard for the history of the site.

      Tschumi's design was driven by a competition calling for a design that would respond to Paris' urban redevelopment of the 1980's. The brief for this competition called for an urban park for the 21st century. The contest was a result of the efforts made by President Mitterand to make Paris a more tourist influenced city. Out of more than 470 proposals, Tschumi's Parc de la Villette was most reminiscent in contemporary issues as well as the future while refusing to reference the history of the site. Tschumi developed an open yet direct path throughout the park. There are several open areas in which a more direct path will direct the viewer. From these spaces there are several ways by which a person may proceed through the site. Although the circulation alone may get slightly ambiguous, direction and orientation are always confirmed by the bright red coloring of the structure itself. Such circulation allows for "constant reconfiguration and discovery" throughout the park. Not only does the scale and coloring of the structure orient and define a place of discovery for the visitors but it also serves as a point of reference for the local tourists of the city.

        While aiming to stand out with his big red mess of metal, Tschumi explained the reason to his madness as a result of three principles of organization; points, lines, and surfaces. 

 POINTS Thirty five points make up a grid that defines the spread of the 135 acre site, which Tschumi referenced as "follies". These follies are each different than the next and unique in their own place but given their repetitive nature, they are meant to give the visitors within the park a point of reference so not to get lost in the space.  

 LINES  The lines within the park are just as random and various as the park itself. They are not governed by any means of organization or grid but rather are only directed by specified places of "interest" within the park. 

 SURFACES The surfaces of the park refer to the 85 acres of green space that scattered throughout the site. These surfaces are the part of the park given to the interaction of visitors with the park. The green spaces are dedicated to play, relaxation, socializing and typically to large open gatherings. 

     Parc de la Villette is a piece that stands out with its obnoxiously bright coloring, and excessive size. With complete disregard for the history of the site, Tschumi designed a park whose sole purpose is to orient tourists, being the bright red beacon of reference that it is. This is greatest bond it has to its location. Its size and material boasts the innovations of the 21st century and possibilities of what is to come in the future. As of now this park stands out as something abnormal and out of place but because it has put so much emphasis on the design of the future, it is only the future itself that will ever be able to define the normalcy of this work. Only time will tell the truth regarding the abnormality/normalcy of this project. 

REFERENCES: 

http://archidose.org/wp/1999/02/01/parc-de-la-villette/

http://www.archdaily.com/92321/ad-classics-parc-de-la-villette-bernard-tschumi/

http://www.larch.umd.edu/dsw/larc_263_examples/parc_de_le_villette_site.pdf

Regulating Nature: How the function of a garden dictates its form

Gardens are a particularly interesting situation in the fabric of a city. Cities are entirely manmade environments designed to suit the needs of their populations. A garden is, in general, a natural or semi-natural spaces that acts as an addition to the city environment. This is a very different situation than the relationship that normally encountered when designing architecture (that of a building to a site). The level of human regulation that a garden is subject to is determined by the purpose that the garden is meant to serve. A garden may act as a foil for the city, as a way of recording the original environment of a space, as a relaxation area, or as a recreation area.

Alan Sonfist - Time Garden

The natural space of a garden punctuates the manmade city space. The relationship between the two spaces can say as much about the city as it does about the natural environment. This is accomplished through the tension created between the contrast of the two spaces (especially when a garden is not highly regulated). One great example of a highly unregulated garden is Alan Sonfist’s Time Garden which is located in New York City. This garden is a careful recreation of the natural flora that originally occupied the space that is now New York. This extreme break from the order of the city serves as a form of punctuation and as a living natural record.

Catherine Mosbach - Jardin Botanique Bordeaux - Plan

A garden can also record the natural environment in a slightly more ordered way. Catherine Mosbach’s Jardin Botanique Bordeaux, for example, presents the natural flora as one would present objects in a museum. She carefully compartmentalizes different vegetation and presents many different sorts of environments within a very confined space. Though form of presenting the natural environment is less authentic it also allows visitors to the space to gain a broader idea of what the space the city occupies would have actually been like.

Gardens are also often meant to serve the needs of the population of the city. Traditionally the purpose of gardens has been to provide a place for relaxation and respite from the city itself. Spaces designed for this purpose tend to be more structured that the previous examples because they, like the city itself, are designed largely to accommodate people. Gardens meant for the purpose of relaxation can be either private or public. Gardens that are private tend to contain more order because they typically occupy a smaller space and very often have walls which are a strict regulating feature.

Parc De Villette
Competition Entry -
Diagram of form generating layers

The final purpose a garden might serve is for the purposes of recreation. Often such gardens are the most highly ordered because they are meant to serve specific purposes other than simply providing a place to relax. Oma and Rem Koolhaas’s entry for the Parc de Villette competition in Paris is an extreme example of a garden as a regulated space. This garden is intended specifically as a space for activity. The design of the garden is entirely geometric and regulated by mathematical formulas and algorithms. It is essentially a structured space that includes some natural elements as opposed to a natural space with some structural elements. 

Compositions: Landscapes & Paintings

By Shawna Hammon 
Lecture - "Making Landscapes: Urban Gardens"

I cannot help but notice some striking similarities in the formal language between the Rem Koolhaas competition entry for Parc de la Villette and a Wassily Kandinsky painting.  Although these two designers lived during different eras, I believe this comparison will demonstrate how this language continues to be used today by designers across the world – it has become the universal dictionary of graphic elements that Kandinsky sought to assemble during his career.

Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter, is credited as the first to produce completely abstract works.  He began his studies with law and economic.  He did not begin painting until he was 30 years old.  Kandinsky lived during both world wars and taught at the Bauhaus until the Nazis shut it down in 1933.

Rem Koolhaas, a Dutch “starchitect,” is considered one of the “World’s Most Influential People” by Time magazine.  He is a founding partner of OMA and teaches at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.  Koolhaas has published several books, most notably (for the purpose of this blog post), Delirious New York in which he explores the idea of the city as an unstable environment shaped by political and economical forces and organizational tools such as the grid that help stabilize and program the city into its current state of being.

This post will compare the Koolhaas competition entry for Parc de la Villette to Kandinsky’s Composition VIII.  Both projects are layered and explore the juxtaposition between controlled and free conditions.

 

Koolhaas explores two conditions (1) the “culture of congestion,” which is unstable, uncontrolled, and unprogrammed as opposed to (2) “the grid”, which is structured, rigid, controlled and programmed.  The park acts as a “social condenser” through the 43 programmatic bands that are permeable and encourage programmatic mutation.  There is a “dynamic coexistence of activities.”  In Parc de la Villette it is possible to never experience the park the same way twice depending on how you move through and between the programmatic strips.  Koolhaas encourages self-invention, it is the “people’s park” allowed to evolve and change over time.  Participants are invited to make it their own. 

Kandinsky also plays with the notion of geometric versus organic shapes.  He notes that there are exact geometries in nature, like those seen in the formation of a spiders’ web or the veins of a leaf.  Others are freer, organic.  He leaves it to the observer to decipher his paintings and extract meaning – whatever that may mean.  He seeks “effective contact with the soul.”  The observer might not even understand why they are drawn to a certain painting, but that it just feels right.  Kandinsky sought a language for painting – he tried to assemble a universal dictionary of graphic elements for his compositions.  This vocabulary consisted of point, line, plane, colour and texture.

Both men talk about their projects in relation to music – not surprising from Kandinsky, but we do wonder if Koolhaas was influenced by Kandinsky even to this extent.

“How to orchestrate on a metropolitan field the most dynamic coexistence of activities x, y, and z and to generate through their mutual interference a chain reaction of new, unprecedented events; or, how to design a social condenser, based on a horizontal congestion, the size of a park.” – Koolhaas

“As soon as we open the door, step out of the seclusion and plunge into the outside reality, we become an active part of this reality and experience its pulsation with all our senses. The constantly changing grades of tonality and tempo of the sounds wind themselves about us, rise spirally and suddenly collapse. Likewise, the movements envelop us by a play of horizontal and vertical lines bending in different directions as colour-patches pile up and dissolve into high or low tonalities.” – Kandinsky

Citations:

Özkan, Özay. “Strategic Way of Design in Rem Koolhaas’ Parc de la Villette Project.”  MA Thesis Middle East Technical University, December 2008. Dissertations and Theses. Web. 10 Sep. 2012.