Following a redesign of three years, the Republic Square in Paris reopened this year will help the events regularly that make it one of the most important public spaces in Paris. For designers of space, TVK agency, it was important not to encroach on what many Parisians consider their inalienable right to protest - but a question remained about how the site could be more favorable to other uses at the same time. In this article, first published by Metropolis Magazine as " Place of protest " Veronique Vienne explores how TVK agency allowed Parisians to have their cake and let them eat too.
in Paris, the political discontent rituals are traditionally celebrated on the Republic square. It is a kick-off point favorite for countless steps that define democracy in the French capital. But before take the street in a slow procession, crowds blocking traffic around the square, creating an impasse that can paralyze the city of the Sacred Heart at the Opera. During this time, citizens learn to unfurl banners and shouting slogans. It is good, clean legal fun.
well, no more.
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Two young architects, Pierre Alain Trévelo and Antoine Viger-Kohler, the TVK agency in Paris, won the competition in 2010 restructure the esplanade. A messy yard for three years, the new Republic Square is finally fully operational. But the Parisians have yet to take the measure of transformations. The strikers angry can still meet and they, but they can not prevent others from going about their business. The place offers a new model for participatory democracy: a comprehensive approach rather than obstructive
Have the architects have betrayed the rebellious spirit of the place
in the center of the square was a massive bronze statue on a monumental pedestal, a symbol of the French Republic. Inaugurated in 1883, it was in the middle of an intersection on a traffic island surrounded by trading cars with anger tight circle. The statue is still there, in the same place, but the center of it all, the control of the geometry of space. The architects extended behind her, not in front of him. They have marginalized the allegorical figure of 31 feet in height, working behind his back, so to speak.
There was a choice-a radical movement to institutionalize the place, trying to effectively change its symbolic orientation. When people gathered under the watchful eye of an authority figure, the statue, they now come and go in peace, as they please.
"The statue still works as a rallying point different political groups," said Trévelo. "But the presence of protesters excludes most other activities on the site. Skateboarders, tourists, the elderly, children with parents and workers on their lunch break can coexist with activists defending a cause."
Today, the little square planted is a vast mosaic of smooth polished concrete blocks, smooth as a low-tide beach. It is a brilliant emptiness that reflects the Parisian sky. The emphasis is on horizontal lines. The vast rectangular esplanade northwest-southeast, as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, feels limitless perimeter apparently recedes into the distance through a light mist.
At one end, next to a mirror-inch deep pool, a glass pavilion with a flat cantilevered awning scanning serves coffee . At the other end, a low wooden platform offers a provision of municipal seats. At the back-sunny-side two shallow terraces offset the slightly convex profile instead. For strollers looking for privacy, these two enclaves observatories from which to survey the scene.
Each section of the site is modulated to suit different purposes and events, concerts tournaments. In one region, the ancient outdoor games can be rented for free. In another, people are sitting on the steps and open their laptops. The restored monument, renovated and re-acts as a watchtower. Around his pedestal, turned into a viewing stand, couples dance day and night, the ballroom style.
Quietly, architects have achieved a paradigm shift. They replaced the model of the Panopticon prison where a guard situated custody of prisoners under constant surveillance, with another model, in which the control is in the hands of residents, users and taxpayers in a kaleidoscopic entity.
It has developed to date. Since the reopening of the Republic Square in June 2013, there was only one police intervention instance, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in July 2014 (the demonstration was prohibited, a exceptional measure that angered many). Otherwise, the place is an unregulated area. There are no barriers, no fences, no railings, no signs keep-out: climbing, jumping, skateboarding, rollerblading, biking, dancing, picnic, drinking, kissing, sitting, sleep-you name it-is allowed. Miraculously, no rudeness is the only unwritten rule.
"Public spaces are messy," said Trévelo. "We know that. We chose a strong and durable building material that can take the knocks, are easy to clean, and can be replaced without difficulty." He believes that the quality is among the most cost-effective security measures. In France, at least, people instinctively respect the things that are well designed, well built and well maintained, is the mainland version of the theory broken windows.
Yet, behavior antisocial can not be eliminated French philosopher Michel Foucault, author of and punish. the birth of the prison , the famous 1975 treaty monitoring mechanisms, reminds us that the concept of freedom generates its opposite: "the 'Enlightenment', which discovered the liberties, also invented the disciplines," he noted. The idea that you can not have freedom without strict crackdown has often been used to justify the war against terrorism and the culture of widespread monitoring today.
But there are pockets of resistance to this notion, especially among urban planners and architects Trévelo and Viger-Kohler included . restrictive safety standards are not the inevitable price we pay for living in a democracy, they argue. Try to reduce the risks by separating the various activities is the wrong strategy. A better alternative is to create opportunities for multimodal interactions between groups and entities.
In this spirit, they convinced the city to restore traffic in both directions on three sides of the room to reduce the level of frustration of drivers (and reduce their antagonism towards pedestrians). For the same reason they opposed measures to reduce the number of cars. On the other side of the plaza, they created a special slow lane, allowing motorized vehicles to share the road with pedestrians. They fought to ensure that bikes can circulate freely among the skaters and strollers. They designed ramps for delivery trucks, minimizing their downside in the public eye.
Each proposal was motivated by the desire to break down barriers to use of space. "Our idea was to create an open programmable esplanade," they say. "We can not predict how technology will evolve and transform the uses, but we can not try to thwart future developments. Public places we designed act as thresholds between now and now. Our work is unfinished, the purpose. We do not want it any other way. "
There are no shortage of skeptics in Paris to denounce the gentrification of the Place of the Republic of protest gentrification, not less. I was one of them, my first reaction when driving by last fall, was embarrassment, like when a favorite secondary library is replaced by an overpriced sandwich shop. Mine is the woebegone generation: the things we did not even know that we love are taken away from us all the time
My disillusionment was tested recently when I crossing the wet. esplanade on a rainy day. I was expecting a place windswept, but found an enclave of equanimity. Each step I took up a weariness of my shoulders. I felt free, even exalted. I started to jump. Nobody looked at me.
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