"
Je vous autorise à réaliser dans la pratique de vos théories [...]
Pessac doit être un laboratoire" ("
I allow you to achieve your theories [...]
Pessac must be a laboratory") Henri Frugès said to Le Corbusier in 1924 when he orders the achievement of a
garden city for his workers in Pessac (Suburbs of Bordeaux).
After theoric works like Citrohan House, Domino House, Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier is thus able to achieve his architecture at big scale.
Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret organised the site with five different kinds of buildings:
Isolated (70m²)
Skyscraper (110m²)
Zigzag (80m²)
Archway (85m²)
Staggered Rows (80m²)
Pessac was famous for a long time as the Modernism's failure. In fact, housing were originally planned to be three times cheaper to build than what they actually were (only 50 housing were actually built instead of 135 expected).
Then, as years went by, buildings were transformed little by little by its inhabitants who obviously prefered traditionnal ways of housing than modernism ones. Nowadays, a lot of buildings were renovated but there are still some of them which still show inhabitants readjustments.
Infact, Pessac still tackles the problem of the breakage between innovation and tradition and also the architect's knowledge and competence to think and act in favor of people who undergo architecture every day.
[C]space is the winning entry in the ‘AADRLTen’ Pavilion competition. It is an advanced technology concrete structure that is erected in Bedford Square,London. The Pavilion opened on 13 March 2008 coinciding with the release of the DRL10 Book. The structure was designed and developed by Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang with Adams Kara Taylor and members of the AADRL
If you'd like to read some informations about the new project --> official website
"Je vous autorise à réaliser dans la pratique de vos théories [...] Pessac doit être un laboratoire" ("I allow you to achieve your theories [...] Pessac must be a laboratory") Henri Frugès said to Le Corbusier in 1924 when he orders the achievement of a garden city for his workers in Pessac (Suburbs of Bordeaux).
Isolated (70m²)
Skyscraper (110m²)
Zigzag (80m²)
Archway (85m²)
Staggered Rows (80m²)
Look what Marksor and Delpolo found in Rochechouart (Haute-Vienne / France) ! This church owns one of the hundred crooked spires (Clocher tors in French) in Europe. You can find a complete article on French wikipedia here. There are 66 crooked spires in France and some others in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, England and Denmark.
Saint Gall Chruch's crooked spire in Niedermoschwihr (Haut-Rhin / France)
Saint Mary Church's crooked spire in Chesterfield (Derbyshire / England)
Back from holidays, I have at least some quite interesting stuff to show ! Here are some pictures of the Water Expo Zaragoza 2008 with Zaha Hadid's bridge (quite impressing from the outside, quite "subway like" inside...) and some other interesting buildings (brown's one is made of wood, stones and earth and is very cool !).
