Paris is a dynamic and international city that attracts tourists and longer-term visitors from all over the world. This project called for a complex to support visiting art students and artists in a rapidly redeveloping area in eastern Paris near the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand and the new campus of the Université de Paris VII. The assigned site was occupied by a number of worn-down industrial and commercial buildings, but the surrounding blocks were quickly redeveloping with crisp modernist mid-rise blocks.
The challenge was to create a building to fit the emerging context and capitalizes on sightlines to the city-center. Our project consists of three dominant building volumes, interconnected by ramps and escalators across an interior courtyard. Each of the three volumes has a specific function: the largest contains student housing and collective workspaces; a smaller block contains housing for artists, instructors, and their families; the remaining block contains the most public functions, including galleries, classrooms, and dining.
Additional public spaces, including a cinema and café are located on the roof-level and are accessed by transparent express elevators from the street. Placing these spaces at the top of the building inverts traditional hierarchies to take advantage of the best views and to filter visitors through the complex in a controlled way. Along the downward circulation path, visitors pass through a restaurant, gallery, and bookshop.
ARCH 272, Spring 2002, Professor Rebecca Wiliamson
team project with Tim Eberline, Steven Leathers, and R.J. Van Liere