# Visiting Concrete Le Havre / Auguste Perret & Oscar Niemeyer

Yesterday, I went to Le Havre in order to make a little photographic reportage within the city which was reconstructed after allied bombings in 1944. At this time Le Havre could be assimilated as the French Coventry and 10 000 new housing had to be built in ten years. Auguste Perret, who was already 71 years old, was appointed as Chief Architect of the Reconstruction and his office designed all the buildings which are now Le Havre downtown. In order to be efficient, every single architectural element's dimensions were according to a 6.24 metres weft. Thus, every buildings are 2x6.24m wide, every post is separated to another one by 6.24m, every window is 6.24/6m etc.
In addition of that, Perret wanted to build an huge concrete layer 3.50 metres above ground and to "lay" all the city on it because of the boggy land. Thus, all the technical facilities (water, electricity, telephone, car parks etc.) would have been put under this layer. Unfortunetly, it wasn't accepted by Le Havre's Authority.

Here is Saint Joseph Church, also designed by Perret and it is one of the crazyiest building I have ever visited. Thanks to Marguerite Huré's stained glasses and Perret's monumental concrete, I really felt like I was playing in Blade Runner !!! Unfortunetly my pictures can't really make you figure out but it's really really amazing !

The other very famous architect who worked in Le Havre is Oscar Niemeyer. Here is his building in the very centre of the city, some kind of kilimanjaro let down in Normandy ! It's called the Vulcano (you can't make it up !) and I didn't get the chance to visit it (every thing was closed for vacation) but the exterior surface is really fascinating ! Another superb concrete landscape in the city's core. Look at the styly gutters around the doors !

# Tribute to the great Kisho Kurokawa

his house in Karuizawa (1972)

# Diplomas Exhibition at La Galerie d'Architecture

I forgot to write it before but, until Friday (25th of July) La Galerie d'Architecture exhibit several diplomas whose four from ESA: Mourtade Gueye / Olivier Amat / Luc de Dampierre, Henry Lacarce, Matthieu Merlen & Salem Mostefaoui / Martin Le Bourgeois and myself (Léopold Lambert)
There are also projects from Paris Malaquais, Paris Belleville, Paris La Villette, Paris Val de Seine, Marne la Vallée, Versailles, Bordeaux, Lille and Strasbourg.

La Galerie d'Architecture
11 rue des blancs manteaux Paris IV
open from 11.am to 7.pm

# Damned Architects !!!

# Serpentine Gallery's Pavilion 2008 is now open

As said in this post's title, the new Serpentine Gallery's pavilion has been inaugurated two days ago. This year, Frank Gehry with Ove Arup were appointed to design it and succeed to create a new impressing technical work. Although, I am quite desperate to observe that once more, what was created can be assimilated to an unique roof and people have been once more offered some basic benches where they can admire the genius'work... Does engineering is the only issue here ? Why do these TEMPORARY buildings have to be so frigid and neat ? When I visited Eliasson's last year pavilion I was with a guy who started to climb over the cone and who was immediatly yelled at and put back into the line of gregarious people visiting peacefully. Only MVRDV in 2004 proposed to tackle this problem but unfortunetly their pavilion was not constructed...

Here is a little reminder of past pavilions which are, I have to admit, all various and beautiful but which are also all hopelessly examples of what I was just observing.

As you might know, the Serpentine Gallery's Pavilion is appointed to an office which has never built any building in the UK.


2000. ZAHA HADID

2001. DANIEL LIBESKIND & OVE ARUP

2002. TOYO ITO & OVE ARUP

2003. OSCAR NIEMEYER

2004. MVRDV & OVE ARUP (un-realised)

2005. ALVARO SIZA, EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA & CECIL BALMOND

2006. OMA & CECIL BALMOND

2007. OLAFUR ELIASSON & KJETIL THORSEN

# Flooded London 2090, a tranquil Utopia

Flooded London 2090 is an exhibition created by the graffic design office Squint/Opera in Medcaft Gallery (London) and dramatises the old Tyler Durden's (Fight Club) dream to sea a city as London re-colonized by nature. We are now in 2090 and London has been gain on the sea level several years ago, and urban life has been re-organised peacefuly as a tranquil Utopia. Some women are fishing in an abandonned Canary Wharf building, a man is diving from St Paul's dome...everything is simple and silent.
So who is still afraid from the future ?

Of course it remains me of something in the past; Paris beeing flooded in 1910 (see an older post) and Boulevard Haussmann becoming Venice's Grand Canal.


It also remains me of Michael Anderson's Logan's run (1976) when Logan 5 and Jessica 6 discover Washington back to nature and Capitole's dome invaded by ivy !

# craZY SEA CIty

Here is a very surprising project for Tel Aviv's marina designed by Ortner & Ortner, an austrian office in...2004. It's called Sea City and was exhibit at the Venice Biennale. Still today, there are still people nostalgic of Japanese Metabolism (and I kind of am one of them!).

# Plasma Studio's Ecker Haus

Found this great house extension in San Candido (Italy)! Here is the official project description:

Esker Haus (esker=stratified geological formation) is a self-contained residential unit placed on top of an existing house from the 1960s.The project has been developed as a parasite which started from adopting the structure of the host and gradually differentiated into its own unique organization and morphology. The project is formed by a series of steel and timber frames that deform to recreate the smooth hillsides of the surrounding dolomites. This partly accessible roofscape also determines the spatial character inside- the spaces are enfolded by an angular and dynamic series of planes creating new and ever-changing perspectives and spatial constellations.

Plasma Studio is a london office lead by Eva Castro Iraola and Holger Kehne, who each used to be teachers in the Architectural Association.
Here is the official Plasma Studio's website where there is still many very interesting projects.

# Gilles Deleuze on the web

This website belongs to the Paris 8 University and gathers Deleuze's courses about Anti-Oedipe, Spinoza, Painting and Cinema (about 70 courses in the end). There is no English translation though...but courses can be downloaded as original audio versions.

This other website belongs to Richard Pinhas, one of Deleuze's former student and gathers some other courses, lecture, books, current events etc. Some articles are translated into English, German or Spanish.