Françoise Fromonot | The belly and the architects Les Halles in Paris: an impossible heritage?
Lecture organized by the Institute for Art and Architecture.
© OMA-SEM Paris Centre
The fate of Paris' central area - formerly the site of its wholesale markets - has been a polemic subject for decades. In 2004 a competition was launched for the renovation of the buried megastructure that has replaced the mythical XIXth century pavilions since the 1970s. From a critical reading of this recent history and of the four competing proposals (SEURA, Nouvel, MVRDV, Koolhaas), this lecture will question the fate of this modernist urban heritage, and the architectural and political hindrances to the realisation of its potential.