Charles Percier, often known through his work as part of the duo Percier and Fontaine, is an architect of immense importance to French architectural history and to the Napoleonic period in particular. An exhibition at the Château de Fontainebleau affords a look at his work.
Continue reading Charles Percier at the Château de Fontainebleau
15 years after the landmark Paris-Haussmann exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, the institution revisits the subject in a radically different way to reveal fresh insights. A more than worthwhile visit, on view until June 4th.
Continue reading Haussmann Redux at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal
This is an exceptionally exciting time for Paris. Through a raft of bold projects, the city is regaining the ambition and vision that propelled it to the forefront of modernity nearly two centuries ago. Paris is again on a quest to project itself as a leader on the global stage.
Photograph above: Mille Arbres by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Manal Rashdi OXO Architectes, Compagnie de Phalsbourg, Ogic, Morph
Continue reading Paris in the Twenty-First Century
This week was unveiled a vast and keenly awaited new building in the center of Paris. While the new Les Halles brings new amenities to Parisians and is without doubt an improvement on what was there before, it is also rife with failings and missed opportunities.
Continue reading The New Les Halles
Une part essentielle du caractère de la place Denfert-Rochereau est apportée par les deux bâtiments de la barrière d’Enfer construits en 1785 par l’architecte Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. Un projet mal réfléchi de la Mairie de Paris pourrait compromettre l’intégrité architecturale et paysagère de ce patrimoine important et irait à contresens des objectifs de l’aménagement de la place.
Continue reading Préserver l’intégrité architecturale et paysagère de la barrière d’Enfer
The decisive transformation of Paris in the mid-nineteenth century took place under Napoleon III. But his uncle Napoleon, who held power over France and a broad swath of Europe several decades earlier, had his own notable role in the evolution of the city. In an exhibition now in its final days, the Musėe Carnavalet retraces the impact of Napoleon on the city of Paris.
Continue reading Napoleon and Paris at the Musée Carnavalet
Paris has a prestigious history, but it is also a living city. A new project in the 15th arrondissement gives a sense of how contemporary developments can create a dialogue with the multiple facets of the existing city in order to densify and enrich it.
Continue reading 86-90 rue de Lourmel
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was a passionate, iconoclastic man who became one of the most influential architects of the nineteenth century. Generations have read his writings, followed his teachings and admired his buildings. Paris’s Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine has recently opened a new show that retraces the work of this inimitable and unparalleled figure.
Continue reading Eugène Viollet-le-Duc: Visions of an Architect
After a great run of just over a year in hardcover, Paris Reborn has been published in paperback by Picador.
Continue reading Paris Reborn Out in Paperback
Paris Reborn has been published in simplified Chinese by SSAP, Beijing.
I am delighted that the book is now available to Chinese readers, who are showing great interest in urban issues and to the teachings of Paris’s history.
The Chinese edition contains a new introduction by the author and special illustrations.
I have added a page to this web site with information in Chinese.
More information is available at the book page on the publisher’s web site.
The book can be purchased at dangdang.com.
