THE PARC DE LA VILLETTE

The Parc de la Villette
Group Members:
Zelen Nepram
Rajkumar Prasant
Parth Agarwal

INTRODUCTION
• The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, 55.5 hectares in area, located at the
northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement.
• The park houses one of the largest concentration of cultural venues in Paris, including the City of
Science and Industry, Europe's largest science museum, three major concert venues, and the
prestigious Conservatoire de Paris.
• An award-winning project noted for
its architecture and new strategy of
urban organization.
• The park was designed by Bernard
Tschumi, a French architect of Swiss
origin, who built it from 1984 to 1987
in partnership with Colin Fournier.
Urban renewal is the clearing out of blighted
areas in inner cities to clear out slums and
industries and create opportunities for higher
class housing, businesses, and more.

LOCATION
• Address: 211 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019
Paris, France
• The city of Paris is divided into twenty
arrondissements municipaux,
administrative districts, more simply
referred to as arrondissements and the
park is in the 19th one.
• The 19th arrondissement includes two
public parks: the Parc des Buttes
Chaumont, located on a hill, and the Parc
de la Villette.
• Parc de la Villette is served by Paris
Métro stations Corentin Cariou on Line 7
and Porte de Pantin on Line 5.

DEVELOPMENT
• A reform – imposed by the state for reasons of
aesthetics and efficiency – could be said to have
begun in 1853, with the recruitment of Baron
Haussmann by Napoleon III for the redevelopment
of Paris.
• The Parc de la Villette was developed as part of an
urban renewal plan on the site of the former
national meat market and slaughterhouse.
• Seeking innovative ways to reimagine the space,
French president François Mitterrand sponsored a
competition (as part of his “Grands Projects”
initiative to modernize the country’s monuments
and public spaces) that called for international
entries, garnering responses from the likes of Zaha
Hadid and Rem Koolhaas.
• Repeated urban transformation from various
historical periods occurred on and around the park
site over the course of three centuries leading up
to the park’s designation.
• Tschumi won a competition for the design of Paris’
largest park in 1982.
BROWNFIELD PARK –
• In North America, parks on former
industrial sites later became known as
brownfield parks.

DESIGN CONCEPT
• Designed by Bernard Tschumi, the park is inspired by
the post-modernist architectural ideas of
deconstructionism and a continuation of the city.
• It was intended to create space for activity and
interaction, rather than be the place for the
conventional relaxation and self-indulgence.
• The park mimics the feeling of urban disorientation:
signage is purposefully scarce and paths curve
irregularly, leading visitors to nowhere in particular.
• Bernard Tschumi designed the Parc de la Villette with the intention of creating something without historical
precedent.
• Visitors view and react to the plan, landscaping, and sculptural pieces without the ability to cross-reference them
with previous works .
• By allowing visitors to experience the place in that space, it begins to become more vivid and authentic.
• Tschumi purposefully avoids historical reference in an attempt to make the park a “non-place” where people will
behave on their own terms, not in accordance with historical norms for park behavior.

DESIGN
• The design concept for the park explored the
deconstruction of space and object to allow
accidental relationships, intentionally being the
antithesis of the more composed, picturesque
approach to landscape design.
• It achieved this through the non-composed
overlaying of three layers, referred to as the lines
(that represented key movement routes, both direct
and ‘cinematic’), points (relating to the striking red
follies laid out on a rigid grid that created steps up
and down from different planes) and surfaces
(reflecting different spaces, activities and buildings).

REDEVELOPMENT OF THE AREAS
• Upon the orders of Napoleon III and the prefect Baron Haussmann, the expanse of the parc de la
villette was transformed into a cattle market with slaughterhouses as the city wanted to
concentrate the abattoirs in one area.
• The Grande Halle aux Boeufs, or Great Hall of Cattle was the main former cattle hall of the
Abettoirs de la Villette, this was constructed between the years 1865 and 1867 by the architect
Jules Merindol.
• Built around an area that encompassed the Canal de l’Ourcq, which was originally built on the
orders of Napoleon I to provide Paris with water, there were originally three different market
halls.
• The market became a Monument historique known as the Grande Halle.
• It was in 1979 that a grand project was launched to renew and redevelop the area, yet the Grande
Halle (a former slaughter house) itself was saved from destruction due to its architectural value
and was also put on to the supplementary inventory of historical monuments in Paris.

URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS
• Between 1700 and 1975, at least five urban
transformations of the territory are apparent.
• The first period (1700-1795) saw the construction of
two arterial roads leading out of the city , which
formed a catalyst for urban development in and
around a village known as La Villette.
• Second wave of development occurred in the early
nineteenth century, with the construction of a sixty
kilometer long diversion canal for fresh water supply,
the Canal de L’ourcq, in the La Villette depression, and
canal st martin, connecting the La Villette basin to the
seine in the north to l’ourcq canal system.
• The development of transportation over these canals
catalyzed industrial and warehouse development
along canal routes including in the areas of the park

• A third period of transformation occurred in the late eighteenth century, when La Villette was
annexed in the expansion of the city from twelve to twenty arrondissements.
• In the same period a new military defense wall was constructed around the city. The site itself
underwent a radical transformation in 1867 when Georges Eugene Haussmann presided over the
construction of a 40 hectare cattle market and abattoir complex on the site of the present day
park.
• Three large hall constructed held livestock during sales.
• The largest of the grand hall was 240m long and 87m wide.
• The fourth period of transformation occurred in the early twentieth century.
• The ramparts of theirs had become obsolete and dismantled in 1919 and replaced by a ring road
around the city.
• Metro lines seven and five were also constructed in this period.

• In the last transformation before the park’s construction, a new abattoir (a slaughter house) was
constructed on the site of the old abattoir building (the grand salle) and operated until 1974,
when it was converted to the Cite Des Sciences.
• At the time of the site’s designation as a Park in 1982, urban relicts from all five periods remained
on the site and its surroundings including an assortment of canals, boulevards, motorways and
rail lines, major buildings and structures including the Grand Halle and its accompanying pavilions
and the converted 1960s abattoir building (the Cité des Sciences), which the competition brief
required be incorporated into the design.
• The park therefore, was not so much about the translation of an existing landscape into an urban
park, but rather the transformation of an existing urban area into an urban park.

AREAS REDEVELOPED
• The park was designed by Bernard Tschumi, in partnership with Colin Fournier, on the site of the
huge Parisian abattoirs (slaughterhouses) as part of an urban redevelopment project.
• The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (City of Science and Industry), abbreviated as simply CSI is
the biggest science museum in Europe. The building is constructed around the vast steel trusses
of an abattoir sales hall on which construction had halted in 1973.
• The Grande halle de la Villette formerly a slaughterhouse and now a cultural center, is located in
Paris, France. It is situated on Place de la Fontaine aux Lions within the Parc de la Villette, in the
19th arrondissement.
• The park houses museums, concert halls, live performance stages, and theatres, as well as
playgrounds for children, and thirty-five architectural follies.

CONCLUSION
• The park’s structural features, designed by Tschumi, are paired with the cultural centers it houses,
among them museums, concert halls, and Jean Nouvel’s Philharmonie de Paris.
• As institutions bring people into the park, it becomes even more so a continuation of the city—a
fulfillment of Tschumi’s theoretical agenda.
• Since its completion in 1987, the Parc de la Villette has become a popular attraction for Paris
residents and international travelers alike.
• An estimated 10 million people visit the park each year to take part in an array of cultural
activities.
• With its collection of museums, theatres, architectural follies, themed gardens, and open spaces
for exploration and activity, the park has created an area that relates to both adults and children.
• The Parc de la Villette boasts activities that engage all people of all ages and cultural backgrounds.
• It is a contemporary melting pot of cultural expression where local artists and musicians produce
exhibits and performances.

THE PARC DE LA VILLETTE

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THE PARC DE LA VILLETTE