Les Halles de Paris
By Hans-Josef Jeanrond on Sunday 24 June 2007, 20:20 - Paris - Permalink
Les Halles - vue générale du
quartier
A market place since the 12th century, Les Halles have been rebuilt and
enlarged several times to allow for the constant growth of the city of Paris.
Before the current, mostly subterranean structure, the much regretted Halles of
Baltard were in fact the 19th century architect's second attempt: Napoleon III
did not like his first stone buildings at all, and told his prefect Haussmann
that he wanted much lighter structures, nothing but "large umbrellas".
Haussmann, a school friend of Baltard passed on the message and thus helped
Baltard to get his second chance. He went on to create the iron structures that
lasted for about a century before they were destroyed in 1971. "A massacre and
an urbanistic crime" according to journalist and architecture critic Francis
Rambert (in "Paris", sous la direction de Gilles Plazy, Editions Flammarion
2003, ISBN: 2-0801-11655)
Les Halles - vue générale reflétée
dans une fenêtre du bâtiment même
Following a struggle between Giscard d'Estaing (then President, favouring
architect Ricardo Boffill) and Jacques Chirac (then mayor of Paris), architects
Claude Vasconi and Georges Pencreac'h were charged with the challenge to fill
the huge space on top of the new underground railway and subway stations. They
created one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe, but unfortunately,
nobody stopped them and gave them a second chance to improve their design. That
is why a new huge project is under way today to replace their 70's
architecture. (Click here for more information.)
Click on the small images to enlarge
"Profondeurs" - Here you get an idea
of what remains of the famous "trou des Halles". The excavation for the
complete project, including the underground train stations, was so enormous
that a mock western was filmed there in what seemed a desert landscape. Only
when the camera was lifted up in the last scene of the film, did the spectator
realise that the location was in the heart of Paris.
(Click on the image to enlarge)
"St. Eustache - Déchirures"
This image is more in the style that you are used to if you have been
following this blog for a while. It shows the tortuous relationship between the
old gothic church and the 70's "consumer temple".
The next two images give a "straight" view of the uneasy juxtaposition of
old and new architecture.
"Exclusion"
This photograph has been taken from inside the shopping centre. The metal
arches of the shopping centre seem to mock the gothic stone arches supporting
the nave of the church. The window bars “separate” the two worlds. The church
is "excluded" from the modern world - or the shopper is locked into his "brave
new world" – depending how you look at it. (This photograph was published in
the book "Paris", sous la direction de Gilles Plazy, see above)
Time is counted for les Halles
as we know them today. Construction work for the next version will start in
2008 (or so we hope). The pigeons sit here like vultures announcing the doom of
this "architecture de pacotilles" as Francis Rambert calls it.