Parc de la Villette -An investigation of strategies/Urban Form

Parc de la Villette

An investigation of strategies

Vilee Wagh

MArch Housing & Urbanism

Urban Form

Tutor: Irenee Scalbert | Naina Gupta

During the 20th century the concept of a Park and its relationship with the city was challenged The competition of Parc de La Villette held in May 1982 put forth a complex brief for an urban park for the 21st century Out of the 472 entries that were received, nine finalists were selected for the unplanned second stage and made to compete, at the end of which the commission to design this park was won by Bernard Tschumi 1 The runner up of this competition was OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) headed by Rem Koolhaas. What sets these two proposals apart is their breakthrough in setting a new programme that redefined the concept of public space, parks, social context and the urban civilization. The schemes called into question the traditional notions of order, unity, coherence and methods of organization between the built and the unbuilt. The aim of this essay is to critically examine the deeper concepts behind the two proposals submitted by Bernard Tschumi and OMA and to strategically understand the attributes of the project that are driven by a rich combination of a theoretical baseline and a built transformation of the same. This project has influenced the urban discourse in a multitude of ways for decades to come after it was published. It addresses a variety of theoretical questions of the approach towards context, use of space in social transformation and questions regarding the concepts of fragmentation, disjunction, layering and superimposition. These questions and the various concepts addressed by both the schemes cannot be summarized easily in a condensed version of a short essay Hence, this is an attempt at delving deep and dissecting some of the key strategies employed by both the teams and their guiding principles and deriving a comparative study of both the proposals

Aim of the brief : An Urban Park for the 21st century

The importance of this project over decades and its extensive influence on the urban discourse is due to the fact that it challenged the notion of a park One of the theoretical arguments of the design brief was that the park treats the city as a whole and not as an accumulation of zones and pockets 2 The seventies portrayed a renewed interest in the idea of the forma constitution of the city and its typologies and morphologies, but this attention was devoid of a strong programmatic justification.

The ambition of this new park was to achieve an active relationship between the park and the social fabric of Paris through a particularly complex programmatic policy that would outlast the changes in economic, political and social constructs. It would embrace and express the synergy between the urban civilization and the metropolis by using integrated functional justifications and to fuse function and event to develop a new typology of a park. The urban culture encouraged by the park would accommodate the shifting patterns of both the traditional and popular activities in the park which would be served by a visible order. The brief suggested an invention of mechanical, formal and programmatic devices to methodize a way to organize the existing and proposed structures and surfaces which would also address the fundamental issues of landscape and interpretation of vegetation and the built masses. The brilliance of the park was that it underlined the sophistication of the prevailing architectural thought in France

Systems

The design strategy employed by Bernard Tschumi for the Parc de la Villette finds its roots and inspirations from a strong theoretical research from the concepts in Architecture and Disjunction and The Manhattan Transcripts. Tschumi’s ideas of a space being an instrument for the social transformation and the changing relationship between the individual and society are translated in the La Villette proposal. He professed the concept of the inevitable disjunction in architecture’s inherent confrontation of space and its use. This makes architecture operate as constantly unstable, constantly on a verge of change.3

The systematic exploration of themes in the Manhattan Transcripts is based on frames and sequences, whereas in La Villette it is based on superimposition and repetition. The common denominators of the idea of disjunctive projects is the rejection of the idea of synthesis and an opposition between use and the architectural form. Instead, there is an emphasis on dissociation as a method, superimposition and combination that channel and trigger dynamic forces, resulting in an explosion of limits and boundaries. Tschumi’s ideology towards La Villette aims at unsettling both memory and context, refusing to function as a result of the expression of any pre-existing content, be it subjective, formal or functional True to its meaning, it absorbs the essence of the his theory that architecture is more of the signifier than the signified Reaching a level of interpretative infinity, the tools used to formulate multiplicity of impressions explore the concept of a ‘folie’ . The use of grid acts as an agent, an abstract parameter that mediates between architecture and programme, creating a sense of distanciation between the built realm and the user’s demands.4

Systems

“In madness equilibrium is established, but it masks that equilibrium beneath the cloud of illusion, beneath feigned disorder; the rigour of the architecture is concealed beneath the cunning arrangement of these disordered violences.”

This concept of madness acts as a consistent reference point throughout the La Villette while it appears to illustrate the situation of twentieth century with all its disjunctions and alienations between form, use and the social values. This idea is practically transformed in the form of ‘Folies’ 5 due to its ability to function as an autonomous object that is open to receiving new meanings with the changing times and social construct. The Folies, organized in a grid of 120m intervals which after putting in place, achieves a reality that differentiates it from being a simple geometric pattern. It functions as a system of Points that possesses the status of ‘objects’ that activate space and emphasize ‘occurring events’than just gratuitous stylistic play. In an elaborate theme of variation, it allows one to read the site symbolically and structurally while permitting the highest level of programmatic flexibility and invention It rules out all the hierarchy within the structure of the park and treats the whole as one uniform grid

This is combined with the system of movements and system of spaces which are translated in the form of lines and surfaces The formation of the encounter of the three systems work by their own logic, particularities and limits. The programmatic requirements are deconstructed on the entire site in this arrangement of points of intensity (follies) supported by the system of movement facilitating North-South links between the two Paris gates and the subway stations.

Systems

The Folies aim at developing a corollary with Tschumi’s architectural theory that talks about being informed by what exists – space, the body, movement and history which cannot be reduced to these factors in isolation. They take into consideration both the unexpected and the unintentional, the pragmatic and the passionate and encompasses all that which was excluded from the realm of architecture for belonging to the more irrational world. The point of the folie acts as the focus of a dissociated space, becoming a common denominator while adding up to a system of relationships between varied objects, events and people.

It has been established in the texts by Tschumi that combination exists only within a complex system of transformational relations. The initial explorations in the Manhattan Transcripts were the guiding research principle behind the La Villette, which was of being an empty slot.6 Described through “the football player skates on the battlefield’’ it describes the interchangeability of objects, people and events. The main concern of the project was to apply these theoretical concerns on a practical level and move away from the ‘pure mathematics’ to the applied mathematics The two strategies explored were distinctive from each other through design being a result of transformations and becoming the origin The second strategy, that instead of being a result of an extensive design process, the design itself proves to be a starting point for the series of transformations that eventually leads to the creation of the built reality. This ends in the formation of the three abstract autonomous systems.

Systems

In order to remove any ascendency of a privileged system and organizational elements, the three systems of Points, lines and surfaces are superimposed, negating the possibility of a ‘composition’. The principle of ‘Heterogeneity’ comes into play through the use of diverse, multiple, segregated and inherently confrontational elements. This aims at promoting instability and programmatic madness in the form of a ‘Folie’. 7The three systems work in the form of layers, that can insinuate layers of unexpected change and occasional constructions. The juxtaposition of the different sequences of spaces created by the insertion of the Folies over the surfaces and textures disrupt the coherence and reassuring stability of composition. While fulfilling its goal to prove that was able to construct a complex architectural organization without utilizing the traditional compositional, hierarchical techniques and order, it also strived to displace the existing opposition between architecture and program, questioning the other architectural conventions through ideas of superimpositions, combination, permutation and substitution. In an attack against the notions of cause-and –effect relationships between function, structure, economics or form and program, the strategy substituted these concepts by the idea of contiguity 5

The proposal investigates the thought of structure, which was expressed in the form of a point grid, the coordinate axes (covered galleries) and the random curve (cinematic promenade). By employing the methods of superimposition, the autonomous and completely logical structures questioned the idea of it being an orderly, coherent machine. It established the fact that it could never work as a supercoherent megastructure but would be something undecidable, opposing the notion of totality. It encouraged conflict over synthesis, fragmentation over unity, madness and play over careful management. The deconstructive ideology of the park rejected the context, making it anticontextual and subverting the notion of borders on which its context depends.

The initial hypothesis by OMA is based upon the nature of the programme of the Park of La Villette that aims to be a series of social instruments running across the site in a dense manner. The programme is understood as a suggestion and not a list of functions that need to be inhabited in the Park. The design strategy here works towards creating a proposition of a ‘method’ that would respond to the constant changes and adjustments that the Park would undergo by combining architectural specificity with programmatic indeterminacy. This would entail that the proposal is not simply a design but a tactical tool derived to gain the maximum amount of benefit from the multitude of activities implanted on the site.

The use of nature is considered to be of the most efficient and explosive manner which would result in a stable and aesthetic experience to the user. The essence of the proposition becomes a question of how to orchestrate on a metropolitan field the most dynamic coexistence of activities x,y and z to generate through their mutual interference a chain reaction of new unprecedented events.8 The Park would work as a social condenser that would have its roots in the horizontal congestion of the size of the Park The method to achieve this is through using superimposition of projections The revolutionary understanding of how an urban Park works lies in their understanding of the fact that the more the park works, the more it will be in a perpetual state of revision

Systems

OMA – Strategy : The Strips

The basic layer of projection comprises of a series of parallel bands that run east-west, accommodating different categories of programme. In order to avoid clustering of particular functions, the band works such that it can be incorporated and distributed across the site both at random and with logic. This also brings in the maximum amount of permeability in the interference leads to a vast number of programmatic mutations.

The bands or strips not only serve the new functions but also help accommodate the existing structures on site.(the Science Museum and the Grande Halle) The strips, of standardized dimensions of a width of 50m which is divisible in increments of 5,10, 25 or 40 serve as guides for efficient change and replacement without disrupting the whole site. The layering of these elements works similar to that of a high rise building where the layers are capable of supporting different events , yet all of them contribute to a total that is more than the sum of its parts.

Systems OMA – Strategy : Point Grids/Confetti

The design strategy of OMA, like all their other projects gives a lot of importance to function and programme. In Parc De La Villette this is taken care of by relatively small elements that are dispersed on the site like confetti. This distribution is in the form of a point grid that recognizes the need based on their desirable frequency. The relationship between the strips and the point grid that the elements on the grid can occur in different zones, which makes them acquire and influence their base zone. This leads to the formation of accidental clustering, creating constellations of elements with unique configurations and character. Here, once again we notice the act of permutations and combinations employed that unlike Tschumi’s strict grid, play around while still creating a language of identical, recognizable, strong elements, almost like small meteorites hitting the surface with tectonic confetti.

OMA – Strategy : Access and Circulation

In order to reap the best benefits of the previous two layers, the access and circulation system ensures that they are exploited intensively. The two main elements of this system are The Boulevard and The Promenade. The Boulevard runs north-south and intersects the bands systematically while also connecting the major architectural components. It also represents the 24-hour part of the programme, encompassing activities that would be open all night. This would also lure the people with the metropolitan lifestyle to indulge in and enhance the social environment Promenade, on the other hand, is created through the identification of certain significant plazas that would attract and capitalize on high intensity activities and programmatic interests This results in the creation of sites within the site, which cater to multiple functions based on their morphological needs The strips work alongside these major elements, connecting all the nodes and creating a circulation system that works like the form of the figure ‘8’ . 9

Systems

OMA – Strategy : Final Layer

The final layer is a composition of the major elements, that are both created and found, which are cannot be organized based on a mathematical system due to their size. The relatively regular three layers then become the backdrop for this final layer on which certain selective elements become significant These include the sphere of the Museum, the Ariance, the Rotonde des Veterinaires, placed according to extensions of lines from the surrounding context The large scale elements also comprise of the existing major structures, which is the Museum and the Grande Halle, which is amplified by the insertion of the circular forests and other interventions around the entrances, like a reception square and the Music Zone.

OMA – Strategy : Connections and Elaborations

What makes this proposition stand out is it addresses and takes into consideration something that Tschumi’s proposal did not. It makes a solid effort of creating an interface between the Park and the streets of Paris. It extends the presence of the Park to the wider urban fabric of the City in the form of the Music City which is located in the wedge- shaped area between the city and the Boulevard. Not only that, it also transforms the surrounding context of the railway line through vegetal connections that create two formal languages of the Park, the rectilinear and the curvilinear This layer creates articulations at an urban level and is the summation of the previous layers The multitude of activities embedded in this are the entertainment zone, the Astronomical Garden, the Media Garden, the pyramid green-house, a series of squares, sequestered along the Canal Siant Denis to the Halle aux Cuirs, containing exhibits for the Museum of Science 1 The These five layers make the Park a place of infinite series of meaningful spaces, that would keep on absorbing endless series of future changes and demands without compromising or creating redundancies. The useful coinciding with the poetic, the realization cannot but stick to the conceptual.10

A new Language of the diagram

The diagrams done by OMA for their proposition of the La Villette are distinctive in the way they portray the different layers of programme, a sequence of abstract symbols that determine the hierarchy as well as the complexity of the project. The materiality and its specificity helps one to gain an in-depth knowledge of the kind of landscape and unbuilt aesthetic that would be developed once it turns into reality. The diagrams in their technical sense are drawn from a parallel projection, using the depth of the block to show the layering of environments, thresholds and textures all coming together in one to resonate the wider idea of superimposition. The grain of the diagram and the various hatches, line-weights and specific use of color that keeps it minimal create a visual vocabulary that runs helps us understand the different elements in a detailed manner

The way in which the diagrams portray the landscape, the various typologies of plantation and their organization is both informative as well as indicative of the thought given behind the positioning of the same Activities juxtaposed with the soft-scape and the hardscape create a harmony in the diagram without giving too much away yet keeping it crisp and clear of their intentions

The projects mark the vision of an era and addresses the question of time in a sense that it acts upon the future demands of the economic and cultural development of a key area in Paris The proposals by both Tschumi and OMA give us a rich understanding of the change in the methodologies of research and design strategies while developing new typologies and setting a source of inspiration for a multitude of projects irrespective of the geography The fact that it functions as a discontinuous building while being a single structure while overlapping and superimposing the existing elements with the new activities makes it a unique project in history. Opposing Olmsted’s notions of the landscape in 19th century, which stipulate that, ‘In the park, the city is not supposed to exist’, the Park of La Villette proposed a new version of the social and the cultural park that could hold a programmatic diversity that ranged from workshops, gymnasium, bath facilities to playgrounds, exhibitions, concerts, science experiments, games and competitions in addition to the existing museums. It became a place of intense gathering and collaboration harboring intensive activities. It was thus regarded as one of the most important public spaces designed in the recent decades and achieved the role of being a reference model of the conformation of the 21st century urban space. The proposal by OMA and Tschumi both leave us with a rich understanding of design methodologies through their strategies of dealing with a revolutionary project that created a new typology of Parks. Thus, in a world that demands programmatic indeterminacy and rigorous urban ideology, the Parc de la Villette with its design strategies still holds a strong influence over the design thinking

Bibliography

https://www.oma.com/projects/parc-de-la-villette

http://www.tschumi.com/projects/3/ http://www.umemagazine.com/IAHome.aspx

https://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/parc-de-la-villette-in-paris-franceby-bernard-tschumi

Tschumi, B.Architecture and Disjunction 1996

Foucault, M. Madness and Civilization 1961